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April 2014 $3.50
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DIVERSIFICATION
IS ITS OWN REWARD
+PLUS
HAS CHICAGO LOST ITS
COMMAND OF GRAIN MARKETS?
FINDING THE RIGHT PARTNER
GETS HARDER THAN EVER
REALLY? $140,000 IN SALES
FROM JUST 1.5 ACRES?
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R-29-10184469-02/14-E
CONTENTS
APRIL 2014
BUSINESS
10
FUTURE FARM (3)
14
CHICAGO TRADES UP
21
GUIDE LEGAL— CROWN LIABILITY
22
WORLD CROPS
32
THE MARKET FARMER
36
BETTER EMPLOYEES
38
THE RIGHT PARTNER
40
BREAK AN EGG
Futurist Calvin Mulligan continues our exploration of how
farming will evolve, including “sustainable intensification.”
With electronic algorithms, investors trade on five-minute trends.
It’s fast, it’s efficient, but is it also out of touch with the farm?
When can you sue the government? Lawyer Naomi Loewith
launches her GuideLegal series with this look at XL Foods.
The foods that we used to lump together under the “ethnic”
label are breaking out on their own. The dollars are getting serious.
Is it a real farm? With $140,000 in annual sales,
Jean-Martin Fortin doesn’t actually care what you call it.
Annual reviews are a key tool for driving your farm’s performance
to the next level. Follow these rules to start your own.
With the farm population falling, it's getting harder and harder
to find the right partner. But it’s never been more important.
PG. 26 UNTRADITIONAL
This farmer-owned Lethbridge processing facility cracks open
surprising new markets for two million eggshells a week.
There’s more to diversification than figures on a simple
balance sheet. For Manitoba’s Chris and Crystal Page,
their extra greenhouse enterprise also sharpens their
overall management ability, with benefits for the entire
farm operation, including grain production.
44
C0-OP SUCCESSION?
46
THE POWER TO HELP AFRICA
64
GUIDE HR — BETTER WAYS TO REACH YOUR GOALS
PRODUCTION
66
GUIDE LIFE — GOSSIP — NOT AS INNOCENT AS YOU THINK
50
INTO THE CORNERS
52
UNSUNG CHAMPION
56
OPEN-DOOR POLICY
58
CROSSING THE THRESHOLD
60
HIRING TODAY’S YOUTH
Poor succession planning is a key reason why so many
farm co-operatives are being sold to non-farmers.
Ottawa used to deliver overseas aid with huge Canadian-style
tractors. Now, industry-led programs find success in going small.
Management psychologist Pierrette Desrosiers helps
turn your wish lists into accomplishments.
Pssst! Did you hear ..? Yes, it’s only human to gossip,
but the harm for farmers is greatest.
EVERY ISSUE
6
68
70
MACHINERY GUIDE
Grain carts are becoming the vital link in harvest management.
GUIDE HEALTH
Insect repellents do work, if you use them correctly.
HANSON ACRES
Oh no! Grandpa Ed is back from the south with more than a tan.
Are our new crop varieties all overbred wimps?
Move over Red Spring. Red Winter can be the better choice.
Why is barn access easier for animal rightists than the media?
With tight margins, be sure to check spray economics first.
The job of grooming next year’s farm employees starts this year,
while they’re still in school.
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APRIL 2014
country-guide.ca 3
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Editor: Tom Button
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Tom Button is editor of Country Guide magazine
Where the wind blows
We know so little about agriculture.
Sure, we know how many tonnes our
farms produce of which commodities, and
what our farmers earn in total from them.
As a country, we’re actually quite good at
generating those kinds of numbers.
But we can only guess at the biggest
trends shaping the industry.
Last summer Country Guide looked
into the phenomenon we called the midsize miracle. Like you, we had always
been told that agriculture was losing its
middle. In order to survive, a farm either
had to be huge and focused on low-margin commodities, or small and focused on
high-value niche markets. After the bull
market began roaring in 2008, however,
mid-size farms had a renaissance.
When we talked to Jason Reed in
Alberta, he was quite comfortable with
continuing to farm 4,500 acres, a mid-size
grain operation in that part of the country. Still, Reed knows he can’t be complacent. First, he needs to excel at production
efficiency. Second, he needs to address a
serious risk: Reed leases 40 per cent of his
acreage. To reduce that risk, he needs to
be ready to buy land whenever he gets a
reasonable chance. “Being aggressive is
the only way,” he told us.
We have great confidence in Reed. He’s
smart, savvy, strategic… all those good
things. But if you take all the farms in his
category all across Canada, can they all
size up? Can they all survive such financial
strains in a very unforgiving industry?
4 country-guide.ca In November, we talked to Mike
Kalisvaart, a couple hours north of Reed.
Kalisvaart is convinced that agriculture
is transforming, and that the only way
he can be in charge of his destiny is to
keep sizing up. He sees a Wal-Mart effect
coming to grain production, similar to
the impact Smithfields had on hogs in
1998. That same year, a 10,000-acre grain
farm in his area seemed huge. Now it’s
20,000 acres. And Kalisvaart believes the
climb will continue. “We have growth targets that we want to hit,” Kalisvaart told
Country Guide. Indeed, the family has restructured its management and its entire
way of doing business to hit those targets.
Meanwhile, closer to Calgary, we
talked to Rob Baerg, who has devoted 25
successful years to farming just two quarters. Baerg admits the operation is small,
but it isn’t exactly niche either. He focuses
on seed production, quality premiums,
and other revenue enhancers. Combined
with low debt and shrewd financial management, it has proved a good approach.
But as technology continues to put
more management tools into the hands of
large-acreage farmers, will small farms be
able to hold on?
I’m skeptical of predictions. Rarely do
we see tidal waves in agriculture. Still,
in 10 years time, you have to think we’ll
look back on 2014 and say, Why didn’t
they see it coming?
Are we getting it right? Let me know at
[email protected].
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april 2014
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Machinery
By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor
Here it is, late April, with harvest still a distant dream, yet we’re talking grain carts
and wagons? Yes, because with agriculture evolving so rapidly, there’s no such thing as
an off-season in farming. Farmers are always learning, always looking for options. That’s
why this issue of MachineryGuide is taking a seasonally proactive approach. How you get
your crop from the field is becoming every bit as important as growing it.
 Gerber Model 650
 Balzer — Field Floater 5 with steerable track
It’s one thing to provide a sizable advantage in terms of volume, and still another to be able
to unload in about 90 seconds. But to do all of that and take better care of your soils? That’s
the total advantage promised by Balzer with its Field Floater 5 with steerable track system. The
rear axle can turn as tight as 10 degrees, while
the front axle remains fixed, providing the pivot
point that the rear axle follows. Plus, with four
tracks instead of two, there’s superior flotation,
reduced compaction and improved production.
With its hydraulic suspension system, the Field
Floater 5 also provides smooth towing and
manoeuvrability, no matter the terrain. Available in 1325, 1550 and 2000 models.
New to “Machinery Manager” but not to
its customers, Gerber gravity bins, including
the company’s Model 650, are fully gusseted
and reinforced for long life and reliability.
Designed with a significantly steeper slope
than most of its competitors, the grain flow
out of this near-650-bushel bin is faster and
easier, according to company literature. That
eliminates the need for an operator to shovel
out the inside, even if the grain is sticky. The
Model 650 also comes with 10-inch extensions, boosting the height to 97 inches and
the capacity to nearly 750 bushels. Light kits
and roll tarp covers are also available.
www.gerbergravityboxes.com
www.balzerinc.com
 Demco Harvest Link
Working to ease the bottlenecks between
the combine, the grain cart and trucks waiting
at harvest, Demco is working on its Harvest
Link system. It was so new in July 2013,
there were only two units. But its capabilities
and data co-ordination potential are considerable. The key is keeping everything moving and reducing the wait times, thanks to
3,000-bushel capacity, and an unloading
6 country-guide.ca rate of 333 bushels per minute. The Harvest
Link is also equipped with a radio-frequencyprogrammed electronic scale system, which
allows the grain cart to unload at the same
time a truck is filled without the loss of field
data due to simultaneous loading or unloading. And with the unloading auger boasting a fore/aft adjustment feature, it means a
truck can be loaded without leaving the road,
reducing compaction concerns on your fields.
www.demco-products.com
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Elmer’s HaulMaster
Elmer’s Manufacturing marks its arrival in
the “MachineryGuide” with its HaulMaster,
and a pledge to maximize returns through
innovation and design. Available in six sizes,
the HaulMaster can carry between 670 and
2,000 bushels of valued crop. The 1600 and
2000 come with tracked units, and tracks
are also options on the 1150 and 1300, plus
high-flotation tires on the 850 and 1000. All
HaulMaster carts have a lower profile along
with lower centre of gravity and excellent
balance. Another standard feature is the
full-length cleanout. From the back of the
cart, the single-point access opens the entire
length of the floor, for fast, easy and total
action.
www.elmersmfg.mb.ca
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8 country-guide.ca April 2014
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BUSINESS
FUTURE FARM (3)
In the conclusion to the series,
FCC futurist Calvin Mulligan tells
Madeleine Baerg it’s a good time
to be farming, but the threat of
major disruption is as big as ever
By Madeleine Baerg
“Times of major transition like this are inherently disruptive and uncertain,” Farm Credit Canada’s resident futurist Calvin Mulligan tells us this month. For some farms, the future will be brighter than ever. For others, there will be difficulties ahead. But
which farm is which?
Below, Mulligan identifies some of the key trends for 2014 and beyond. While you’re reading, would you like a side order of
schmeat bacon with your egg-free eggs?
CG: What lies ahead in 2014? Are we likely to
still be debating GMOs a year from now?
Mulligan: Yes, that’s one of the certainties of 2014. Apart from
CG: We have saved an important question.
Is this a good time to be farming?
Mulligan: Certainly, the dynamic nature of
the ongoing debates about the safety and efficacy of GM crops,
the battle over GMO food labels in the U.S. will keep things
bubbling. In Canada, there’s the controversy regarding the plan
for the coexistence of GM and non-GM alfalfa.
And, there are a number of other issues that are woven into
the GMO debate. They range from concerns about the impact of
their widespread use on biodiversity to the matter of how much
influence big agribusiness has on the food system. So there are a
lot of reasons why GMOs will remain topical.
CG: What is the likely impact of climate
change on global food production?
growing importance of farm data, the automation of agricultural
production, and specific technologies like drones.
We can certainly expect to be talking more about how to mitigate the risks associated with climate change, weather extremes
and natural disasters. That’s going to push the issue of climate
geo-engineering out into the open and prompt significant debate.
Consumers will keep conversations regarding agriculturefood-health linkages front and centre.
I’m also expecting increased public concern regarding chemical contaminants in water and our foods.
CG: And on the energy front?
Mulligan: I’m going to be watching
for changes on multiple
fronts — progress toward development of a smart energy grid
and distributed power generation, breakthroughs in green energy
storage, and advances in the development of second- and thirdgeneration biofuels.
10 country-guide.ca
Mulligan: A report from the UN’s International Climate Change
Panel is due to be released very soon. A leaked draft report
suggests that it will be a mixed picture. That is, there will be
beneficial climate change effects for some crops in some places.
However, climate change could also reduce overall crop production by as much as two per cent each decade for the rest of the
century. It’s hard to know with any precision how the costs and
benefits will net out. There will be climate change winners and
losers. At the same time, it’s likely going to be disruptive for all
jurisdictions irrespective of geography.
CG: What kinds of disruptions?
Mulligan: Apart from extreme
weather events, climate change
is already leading to changes in the geographic ranges of plants
and animals, including insects, so it’s more than just a matter of
changes in the length of the growing season, for example, or the
frequency of droughts and floods. It’s also a question of what
new pests and diseases will migrate into farming areas where
they weren’t found before.
APRIL 2014
PHOTOGRAPHY: CAREY SHAW
CG: What other key subjects are on your radar?
Mulligan: We’ve already talked about big-picture topics like the
the industry today
makes it a very exciting time to be involved in farming or
agriculture at any level. Times of major transition like this are
inherently disruptive and uncertain. They bring surprises which
challenge existing risk management capabilities. The good news
is that they also shake up the status quo, creating new openings
and opportunities for entrepreneurs.
BUSINESS
CG: Meanwhile, we’re seeing more food being produced in and on
the edges of cities. What is behind the urban agriculture trend?
Mulligan: The most obvious driver is growing consumer demand
for fresh, locally grown food. There’s also an environmental
motivation to reduce food miles. The calculations regarding
carbon emissions and food miles however, don’t always favour
locally grown.
That aside, I see three other less apparent benefits which can
come from urban agriculture.
One is that we’re going to learn a lot more about the science
and technology of producing food in “closed-loop” systems.
These are systems which link production processes in such a way
that the waste or the byproducts from one process become an
input for another, thus optimizing the resource use and energy
flows. The goal is to mimic nature’s model which achieves zero
waste. Sustainable, cost-effective urban agriculture enterprises
will be closed-loop systems aimed at zero waste.
A second is that urban agriculture can give us more liveable, greener cities. And a third is that urban agriculture could
grow to become an important source of contingent food production capacity. This will be important if, or rather when,
international agri-food value chains are disrupted by natural
disasters or other factors.
CG: Do you consider such disruptions a significant threat?
Mulligan:
When you realize just how disruptive something like
Finland’s 2010 volcano or Japan’s Fukushima disaster were for
international value chains, the need for contingent food supply
capacity becomes clearer.
CG: On a different subject, last year we witnessed
the taste test of a lab-grown, fabricated hamburger.
Is there a future for faux meats?
Mulligan: The verdict of that taste test was essentially “not bad,
but lacking juiciness and flavour.” So, it’s gone back to the lab
for further work. I wouldn’t dismiss it at this point, however,
since there are several factors which could shape future markets
for fabricated meats and other foods.
One is environmental — a concern for reducing the environmental impacts associated with livestock production. Another
is ethical in that some folks believe eating the meat of animals
is wrong. Others don’t eat meat for health reasons. Some consumers in each of these groups could comprise a market for
“schmeat” as it’s been called. On a side note, Hampton Creek
Foods Inc. of San Francisco now offers cholesterol-free mayo
and “egg-free eggs.” CG
Lead by
Example
Use Multiple Modes of Action
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mixing two or more herbicide groups.
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in advance. Monsanto and Vine Design® and Roundup Ready® are registered trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC, Monsanto Canada, Inc. licensee. © 2014 Monsanto Canada Inc.
A Business Strategy for
Forages and Grasslands
As part of an export-focused agri-food
sector, Canadian producers understand
that viability and growth depend on
supplying competitively priced products
into international markets. Investments
help improve competitiveness when they
allow producers to adapt to emerging
and evolving opportunities, respond to
the development of new markets and
enhance business and entrepreneurial
capacity. The challenge for the forage
and grasslands sector will be in deciding
where to invest its resources, how much
to invest and why any one specific
investment has merit over another. While
this undertaking may seem daunting,
experienced agricultural entrepreneurs
simplify complex assignments by breaking
them down into a series of simpler
tasks. The Canadian Forage & Grassland
Association (CFGA) will lead this process
through the development of a Canadawide business strategy.
Business strategies take many forms. CFGA
has chosen a basic four-step process:
• Identify an overarching goal
• Conduct an environmental scan to
examine market trends
• Prepare a SWOT audit to examine
options for strategic objectives
• Develop, list and rank potential
strategies
overarching goal
CFGA’s overarching goal is its vision: to
become a global leader in all aspects
of forage production and utilization,
promoting the environmental benefits
Canadian Forage
& grassland
assoCiation
www.canadianfga.ca
Ph: 780-430-3020
and incorporating research results into
a successful, sustainable forage and
grassland industry.
environmental scan
Forage and grassland markets will
evolve over time. The nature of these
future markets will affect the types of
investments that should be made today.
An environmental scan helps define
future markets by examining current
trends in five areas: Social, Technological,
Environmental, Economic and Political.
Trends show how markets are evolving
and point towards opportunities that
may be worth exploiting in the future. For
example, in developing nations with highincome growth rates, per capita calorie
consumption is increasing – and there has
been a shift to the consumption of highvalue proteins from livestock products.
This may seem to be an economic issue,
but there are other considerations.
Will technological enhancements in
developing countries have any bearing
on their ability to supply animal protein?
To what extent could Canada meet
these needs by producing animal
protein in a cost-effective, sustainable
and environmentally sound manner?
Will these markets be open to Canadian
exporters? Addressing these issues helps
identify opportunities to be exploited and
threats to which forage and grassland
stakeholders must respond.
sWot analysis
A SWOT analysis, addresses Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities and
Threats confronting stakeholders. One
opportunity is increasing demand for
animal protein in developing countries
with high income growth. A potential
threat is that some markets may not be
open to Canadian exports. Canada’s
forage resources, which account for
33.8 million acres or 39 per cent of the
land devoted to crop production, are a
strength. A weakness is the significant
decline in investment and expertise
dedicated to research and extension
education/technology transfer in forage
production and grazing management.
strategy development
Strategies develop from the SWOT
analysis if strengths and opportunities
outweigh weaknesses and threats.
A forage and grassland strategy will
be effective if it can take advantage
of strengths, mitigate the effects of
weaknesses, exploit opportunities and
defend against threats.
CFGA’s business strategy development
is in its infancy. The onus, however, is
on all Canadian forage and grassland
stakeholders to develop and rank an
array of strategies that are designed
to maintain and increase competitive
capacity in global markets. At this
point, we are seeking input from our
provincial members, our supporters
and our partners to help develop and
refine a business strategy that will
guide our investments in forages and
grasslands over the next five to 10
years.
learn more about how peter farms
smart at nhsmart.com/peterJ
©2014 CNH Industrial America LLC. All rights reserved. New Holland is a trademark registered
in the United States and many other countries, owned by or licensed to CNH Industrial N.V.,
its subsidiaries or affiliates. NHM04148906L
business
Chicago trades up
Volumes soar with electronic trading. But has
the board lost touch with fundamentals?
By Lisa Guenther, CG Field Editor
t’s 8:28 a.m. on a Monday in early March,
two days after Russian president Vladimir
Putin has gained parliamentary approval to
invade Crimea. Russian troops have rooted
themselves in Crimea, and Ukraine has called
up its reserves.
Scott Shellady and a cluster of traders in the corn
options pit at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT)
As he waves a bid
across the Chicago
floor, trader Scott
Shellady aims to win
against algorithms
14 country-guide.ca are quiet, waiting for the markets to open. Shellady
and his colleagues have been here since 5:30 a.m.
because Putin’s manoeuvres are sure to ricochet
through the markets.
Shellady, the son of a trader and dairy farmer, has
been at this for 26 years, and he wears his heritage
on his back, in the form of a Holstein-print jacket,
just like his father used to wear on the floor.
Ronald Shellady wore the cow-print jacket as a
reminder that floor traders serve a function, his son
explains. “So it’s not dollar bills in Vegas. There’s a guy
that’s got cattle and there’s a guy that’s got grain, and
we’ve got to put the two together somehow and sell his
milk and sell his corn. So that’s why he wore it.”
“So it’s kind of like a game-used jersey. I wear
it now.”
Rows of computers for support staff and electronic traders circle the pits. A Sons of Agriculture
sticker, spoofing the Sons of Anarchy series on HBO,
marks one terminal. Huge screens of numbers, flashing green, orange and red, border the room. CNBC
plays out on enormous flat screens.
In the middle of the floors lie the pits, sloping
towards the centre, calling to mind amphitheatres.
We all wait for the show to start.
The New York Stock Exchange has an elaborate
ritual each morning, Chris Grams, the CBOT director of corporate communications tells me. In New
York, companies pay for the honour and bring in
celebrities to ring the opening bell at 9:30 a.m., as
they’ve done for decades. But Chicago’s trading community hasn’t any desire for such ceremony, it seems.
Chicago is all business. Exactly at 8:30 a.m., a
low buzzer sounds, and at that moment, the corn
options pit erupts into shouting and flailing hand signals. Adrenalin and testosterone permeate the air like
humidity. For a first-time visitor, it’s a striking scene.
Yet the grain floor isn’t nearly as hectic as it used
to be. Before the advent of electronic trading, each pit
would have been a jostling sea of traders, aggressively
wheeling and dealing. Today the futures pits feel like
ghost towns to older traders.
April 2014
business
Algorithm-based trading is affecting not only the
number of traders, but the very culture of the people
working in and around the exchange, raising questions about whether Chicago can still perform its
price-discovery function.
CBOT’s beginnings
It’s worth delving into the Chicago Board of
Trade’s past to better understand the changes it’s
caught up in today.
Farmers and merchants began gathering in Chicago
in the 19th century to trade. “There were merchants on
every corner at harvest time, so the farmers would come
in and talk to a merchant or two, but they were scattered
all over the city,” says Fred Seamon, senior director of ag
commodity research and commodity development with
Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group.
Seamon spends his days levelling the playing field
so the game is fair for both buyers and sellers. “I’m
one of the few people who can say that my job is to
make all of our customers a little unhappy because
that means they don’t have an edge in the market.”
In 1848, a group of businessmen decided to centralize the merchants to bring in price transparency
and so everyone could participate in price discovery,
April 2014
Seamon says. “And immediately things got better
because everyone knew what was going on.”
Storage facilities were built so grain could be sold
when it was worth more, giving the industry some price
risk management. “You could lock in a price today, and
no matter what prices did, you were protected. And that
sort of evolved to futures,” Seamon explains.
The Chicago Butter and Egg Board, the CME’s
forebear, formed in 1898 to offer contracts in
those commodities. In 1919, the board’s mandate expanded to futures trading and it morphed
into CME. In 2007, the CME and Board of Trade
merged into CME Group. Today CME Group offers
trading in metal, energy, currency and agricultural
commodities, and also includes markets in New
York and Kansas City.
The historic section of the Board of Trade building, an art deco skyscraper, was finished in 1930 and
stands in the heart of downtown, at 141 W. Jackson
Boulevard. The Roman goddess of agriculture, Ceres,
adopted as a sort of patron saint by corn traders,
still perches at the scraper’s peak, clutching a grain
sample bag in one hand and a wheat sheaf in the
With electronic
bidding taking more
business, Chicago’s
vaunted ag pit is
getting tamer.
Continued on page 16
country-guide.ca 15
business
Never a dull day
“It’s almost impossible for it to get
boring,” Fred Seamon says, when asked
what’s so great about working in the heart
of Chicago’s great grain-trading network.
“There’s always some issue that needs to
be addressed.”
Seamon isn’t the only one who counts
the variety as a plus. Each day is different, adds Scott Shellady. “It’s kind of like
recess but you’re trying to make money.”
The people working in and around the
Chicago Board of Trade have a front-row
seat to how world events, such as Russia
invading Crimea, reverberate through the
markets. And as you can imagine, they
have their share of war stories.
Analyst Jerry Gidel cites the market’s
reaction to the Japanese tsunami and
subsequent nuclear blow-out as particularly memorable. Grain markets sold off
hugely for two days, he said, which wasn’t
logical when you consider that Japan
would have needed more food, not less.
Continued from page 15
But the grain markets reacted to the stock
market’s plummet.
Jack Scoville was a phone clerk on
the floor when Argentina and Britain were
fighting over the Falkland Islands. He got
a call to sell soybeans, which were limit
up. Scoville wrote the ticket and gave it to
a runner to zip to the pits.
“And all of a sudden one of the Generals came in and said, ‘Well, we’re going to
make peace. We’re ready to talk peace,’”
Scoville says. “Limit down.”
The client called Scoville back, and
they decided to buy back. Scoville wrote
the ticket.
“And then (the General) comes back
and says, ‘But only on our terms.’ Right
back up.”
Scoville’s client should have made 50
cents. But when Scoville finally got both
fills back, he realized the market had
moved so fast they’d missed their chance.
“If he made or lost a nickel, that was it.”
Both he and the client laughed at the
timing of the trades.
other. She surveys her domain with, one
imagines, a mixture of benevolence and
wrath.
But even with that pride in the Board
of Trade’s history, change is inevitable, and
no one knows it better than the analysts
and traders working in and around CBOT.
Loss of knowledge
Back in 2006, CBOT launched electronic trading. Today more than 80 per cent
of all CME Group trades are electronic,
which has led to fewer boots on the floor. In
2008, CME Group merged the remaining
open-outcry traders to a single floor in the
historic Board of Trade building.
Jack Scoville started as a runner on the
CBOT floor in the early ’80s. Today he’s
a futures market analyst and vice-president of PRICE Futures Group. He doesn’t
work on the floor these days, but sits at a
computer, one in a row of five. He chats
with clients through Skype, with a landContinued on page 18
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line and cell phone also at hand. Orchids rest between
his and his neighbour’s work stations.
Scoville specializes in grains, softs, rice, oilseeds
and tropical commodities such as coffee and sugar.
His day typically starts at 7 a.m., when he checks the
previous day’s runs and publishes his market commentary for clients, in English and Spanish. But his
day doesn’t wrap at 5 p.m. — night sessions open at
7 p.m. and he works Sunday nights, too.
Scoville seems relatively relaxed, but throughout
our conversation he keeps an eye on his computer
screen, watching the markets.
“These were both down, coffee and sugar, when I
walked in, but they’re up big time now,” Scoville says.
The floor was a little wilder when Scoville started
out. “You’d see fights every once in a while.” He
recites some of the arguments that preceded fisticuffs
in the pits.
But as future trades have moved online, CBOT
has lost more than the thrill of the occasional brawl.
The futures traders have left the pits, and are trading
for themselves at home or have taken on other jobs,
Scoville says.
“The makeup of the markets has
remained remarkably constant
over time,” says Fred Seamon,
senior research director at CME
“That central meeting place for knowledge is not
really there. It’s a real shame,” says Scoville.
A block north of CBOT, on South LaSalle Street,
Jerry Gidel works as the chief feed grain analyst at
Rice Dairy. He has a strong grasp on the fundamentals, and chats about everything from the weather
and drought patterns to Canada’s grain transportation system and dried distillers grain.
Russia’s move into Crimea has Gidel scrambling
today, too, as he revises his weekly market updates,
which go out on Tuesday.
Like Scoville, Gidel started working on CBOT’s
grain floor in the ’80s, and he says there used to be
people around the Board of Trade whose work with
elevators and producers gave them a better understanding of grain markets. However, the expansion
of electronic trading to speed order flow has wiped
out this floor pit community, he says.
“The speculative community is now totally technical in orientation. It doesn’t really have a sense of
some of the fundamentals,” Gidel says.
Gidel adds that the short-term traders, previously
called locals, who used to populate the futures pits
had a better sense of market fundamentals that made
them less reactive to chart patterns and more attuned
to fundamental news of the day.
When the floors were more active, locals tendered
a bid and offer. They’d buy quickly and then immediately sell “one tic higher,” says Seamon. “And if they
were right 51 per cent of the time, they could make a
middle-class life doing that.”
Firms now do the same thing electronically,
and are often referred to as high-frequency traders,
Seamon says. “But they basically take the strategy
that the local used to do on the floor and perform
that strategy on the screen.”
Today’s high-frequency traders tend to focus more
on the technical than fundamental side of agricultural
markets, Gidel agrees. They lack a good sense of the
seasonal nature of agricultural markets.
They also rely on algorithms set to follow fiveminute charts, so “if the five-minute chart says to sell
it, well then everybody sells it,” says Gidel.
“Sometimes I call them all lemmings because they
don’t really follow the news. They follow the other followers,” Gidel adds. “So they’ll walk right off the edge
of the cliff because that’s what all the lemmings are
supposed to do. Because that’s what we’re all doing.”
High-frequency traders look less at statistics such
as the Relative Strength Index (RSI) and more at
moving averages, Gidel says.
“To me, that’s caused more volatility as we move
dramatically from one moving average to the next,”
says Gidel.
But despite a few warts, electronic commodity
trading is now here to stay, says Gidel. For one thing,
it allows people to move in and out of the market
more easily, he adds.
Before electronic trading, anyone trying to buy at
Continued on page 20
18 country-guide.ca April 2014
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Continued from page 18
the low of the day had a tough time getting it filled,
he explains. “In the electronic world, you’ve got a
fighting chance if you happen to be buying at the
bottom of the day.”
Shellady misses the open outcry, noting “you’re getting increasingly used to listening to the air conditioning upstairs in the office rather than being down here
screaming and wearing a funny-coloured jacket.”
But customers want trade certainty, Shellady says.
“You can give it to them instantaneously with an
electronic screen. You lose some transparency, but at
the same time you can also do more volume. There
are some pluses and minuses to everything.”
Gidel adds the market needs the liquidity the highfrequency traders provide, too. “Otherwise you’re
going to have the commercials overriding the markets. And so then you have a one-sided market, too.”
CME’s research indicates the market’s liquidity
has improved over time, Seamon says. “You’ve got
all of these traders that are competing to fill orders.”
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission collects data on who owns open interest. “The make up
of the grain markets has remained remarkably constant
through time,” Seamon says.
“If you’re not going to be a part of the market… then, yeah,
you’re going to get yourself
kicked around.”
— analyst Jerry Gidel
Electronic trading has significantly boosted
the number of traders, Seamon says, but it hasn’t
altered the market’s overall balance. “We’ve
attracted new speculators, but we’ve also attracted
new commercial participants for hedging. And
that’s where a lot of our growth has been, in international participants being able to use these markets to hedge risk.”
Seamon also looks at hedging effectiveness or correlations with international prices, and he says those
numbers have improved as well, probably because
more global participants mean world events in remote
agricultural areas are instantly reflected in prices.
Electronic trading has also changed CBOT’s culture to some degree. Relationships were important
with open-outcry trading because, although anyone
could place an order, only exchange members could
trade on the floor, Seamon says.
“So those guys all relied on one another to make
their living. So if someone tried to do something a
little ethically challenged, they would get called on it
because it requires co-operation among all of them,”
Seamon explains.
20 country-guide.ca More market regulations have replaced the standard of collegial accountability that brokers used
to hold each other to, Seamon says. And electronic
trading leaves an audit trail with each trade, he adds,
making it fairly transparent.
Scoville says relationships are still important in
his job. In fact, with the way the markets move these
days, knowing your customers is more important
than ever, he adds. “You’ve got to make sure your
guy can handle it.”
What the next 10 years hold for electronic trading is anyone’s guess. Gidel thinks high-frequency
traders may get tired of being burned by the market
and educate themselves. Whether one looks at the
stock market, bonds or commodities, “if you’re not
going to be a part of the market, and you’re just
going to sample that market, then, yeah, you’re
going to get yourself kicked around,” he says.
Open outcry still king for options
Back on the floor, paper litters the floor outside the
pits like snow. Chris Grams explains the traders in the
pit don’t want to risk missing a deal, so they toss the
paper and CME Group cleans it up at the end of the
day. It’s visible evidence that although electronic trading has emptied the futures pits, so far open-outcry
trading is still king for options, at least in Chicago.
“I think that they’ve had trouble getting the algorithms right in the computer programs to handle
some of the more complicated option spreads,” says
Scoville. “Futures is basically buy and sell it or buy
May, sell July.”
The New York Mercantile Exchange, which also
falls under CME Group, ended open-outcry trading
for options. Scoville says he hasn’t tried an options
spread in New York for a while because they’re hard
to make work, particularly for coffee.
“I really like having the guys on the floor,” says
Scoville. “We’ve got a couple that we work with rather
specifically here in our office that we’ve known for
years and trusted on the floor. And they’ll take our
paper and give us a good shot.”
Options in Europe and Asia are also traded electronically these days, Shellady says. “But the U.S.
customer still seems to like an open-outcry pit so far.
It’s dwindling, though.”
The persistence of open-outcry trading in Chicago is
partly because the exchange is run by members, Shellady
says. “A lot of the other exchanges around the world are
run by five banks so they can just make the decision on a
Friday. So they made the decision for the customers.”
Whether or not customers will keep supporting
open outcry trading for options in Chicago remains
to be seen. “Maybe there’s a niche, maybe there’s
not,” says Shellady. “But if it does ever go that way,
it’ll be sad because it’s been a lot of fun and I’ve been
doing it for 26 years. And it was neat.”
Shellady is gracious about answering questions,
but it’s clear he’s busy this morning. As the interview
wraps, he leaps back into the fray with a roar.
“I’m still at a quarter!” CG
April 2014
Legal
Crown liability
When can a government be liable if
its action or inaction causes harm?
By Naomi Loewith, lawyer at Lenczner Slaght
gribusinesses are occasionally accused
of failing to take due care in their
production of food products, and
have to defend lawsuits as a result. In
some cases, producers can try to shift
some liability onto the government, if they can show
that inadequate inspections or other bureaucratic
failures are at least partly to blame for any harm
suffered by customers.
Alberta meat packer XL Foods is trying to do just
that. XL is defending a proposed class action started
after the discovery of E. coli in its beef products.
It has asked the court to make the Canadian Food
Inspection Agency a defendant, so that CFIA might
pay some or all of the damages that could arise out
of the incident.
XL denies that it has any liability, but says that
if the court finds otherwise, CFIA should share or
assume some or all of the burden because it failed
to establish adequate operating standards, properly
inspect or test its products, or withhold or recall the
beef products.
XL is essentially trying to start a lawsuit within
a lawsuit. It is asking the court to expose the federal
government to the possibility of shared liability, if
the court decides that sale of tainted beef resulted in
harms to customers. What factors do courts consider
when deciding whether the government can be held
at least partially responsible for harm?
The easiest way to bring a government into a
lawsuit is to show that courts have held governments
responsible in similar circumstances. For example,
building inspectors can be liable for conducting a
negligent inspection, as inspectors have specialized
expertise to prevent harm, and building owners rely
on that expertise. Interestingly, an inspector can be
responsible for negligent inspection even if the owner
himself authorized a breach of the building bylaws.
Another area where courts have allowed lawsuits
against the government is negligent misstatement. As
with the building inspector, government agents have
particular expertise, and individuals rely on their
statements. Thus, for example, the government was
liable where it provided wrong information to an
employee about his pension entitlement.
Reliance on government statements does not, however, extend to policy announcements made to the public. You cannot sue for a breach of campaign promises.
Even without a precedent, courts will let a claim
April 2014
against the government proceed where the relationship between the government and the person harmed
is sufficiently “close and direct” that it would be
“just and fair” to make the government responsible.
When, for example, a striking miner bombed a
Yellowknife mine in 1992, killing nine replacement
workers, the workers’ families were able to sue the
government for failing to prevent the deaths. Government inspectors had identified the risk to workers
and knew management’s steps were insufficient to
protect them. As a result, the government could be
named as a defendant.
Courts will not, however, let defendants sue the
government on the basis of a policy decision. Bad
policies should be addressed at the ballot box, not
in the courtroom. As a result, the government could
not be sued when health authorities failed to adopt
adequate policies to prevent the spread of West Nile
virus. That decision was based on the allocation of
scarce health resources, and government priorities.
Similarly, a municipality could not be sued
because its budget only allowed it to inspect its parks
during the summer. But once that inspection system
was in place, the government could be liable for failing to carry it out properly.
Naming the government as a defendant is just a
first, but important, step. Where the court allows an
action to proceed against the government, the plaintiff will next have to demonstrate that the government failed to meet the duty it owed to the injured
party, and that such failure caused harm.
Producers should keep these principles in mind.
If a government representative gives assurance that
safety or other procedures are appropriate, businesses should get these assurances in writing. Producers should also keep records of when government
employees visit their facilities, and what statements
are made during those visits.
So far, XL has been successful in its efforts to
expose the federal government to liability. The court
has allowed XL to name the government as a defendant, and its potential liability will now be determined on the principles discussed above. CG
Naomi Loewith is a lawyer at Lenczner Slaght in
Toronto. As a business litigator, Naomi advocates
and manages risks for clients in a variety of sectors,
and has experience in actions involving all levels of
government.
country-guide.ca 21
business
World crops
We used to call them ethnic crops, but the new name
shows just how big the hottest trend in food is growing
By Helen Lammers-Helps
he face of Canada is changing, and it
may mean new market opportunities
for farmers. According to the 2011
Canadian National Household Survey, one in five Canadians was born in
another country.
While in the past, newcomers had to adapt to
traditional Canadian foods, increasing global trade
means “new Canadians” are now able to source
familiar foods, especially vegetables, from their
home countries.
22 country-guide.ca It’s such a hot phenomenon, there’s even a new
label for it. Although older terms such as “ethnic”
or “ethno-cultural” linger on, these crops that are
not traditionally grown in Canada are increasingly
referred to as “world crops.”
It isn’t a uniform trend across the country.
Although cities in every part of the country have
witnessed increased cultural diversity, it’s still true
that most immigrants to Canada settle in Canada’s
major urban centres, mainly Toronto, Montreal and
Vancouver. In 2011, almost half of all the residents
in Toronto were foreign born.
Within these cities, as well, immigrants tend
to cluster in certain sections. For example, in the
Greater Toronto Area (GTA), 72.3 per cent of
Markham’s population is a visible minority compared to 54 per cent for Mississauga.
This immigration pattern is expected to continue.
Statistics Canada estimates that by 2031, 63 per cent
of Toronto’s population will be a visible minority.
But as mentioned, the 2011 National Household
Survey also shows a trend towards more immigrants
settling in regional centres like Halifax, Winnipeg
and Saskatoon.
In 2009, University of Guelph researchers
Glen Filson and Bamidele Adekunle along
with Sridharan Sethuratnam, program manager of the non-profit organization FarmStart, attempted to put a dollar value on
the potential market for ethno-cultural
vegetables. They surveyed a random selec-
April 2014
business
tion of people from the three largest ethnic groups
represented in Toronto: South Asian, Chinese and
Afro-Caribbean.
The researchers pegged the potential market for
vegetables consumed by these three groups in the
GTA at $732 million per year. The crops included
okra, bitter melon, amaranth, yard long beans, cassava and various varieties of eggplant.
At present, such ethno-cultural vegetables are
mostly supplied by imports from California, Mexico
and South America. Displacing just 10 per cent of
this imported vegetable product with Canadiangrown produce would create a new market worth
$73 million per year.
There is also potential for export to nearby population centres in the United States which have similarly diverse populations and demand for vegetables.
Not only do immigration patterns contribute
to a demand for world crops, but Canadians of
European heritage are increasingly consuming
non-traditional vegetables. Canadians in general
are becoming more adventurous in their eating,
says Michael Brownridge, director of horticultural production systems at Vineland Research and
Innovation Centre, who has been researching ethnocultural crops for the past five years.
As Canadians travel more and eat more at ethnic
restaurants, Brownridge says, they become exposed to
these vegetables and will buy them to cook at home.
Brownridge has focused his research on okra
since it was ranked No. 1 by two of the three ethnic
groups surveyed in the University of Guelph study.
In his trials, Brownridge tested 15 varieties with the
most potential out of the hundreds available.
Brownridge also ran trials with both long and
round eggplant, which are also in demand. “There
is a market for other vegetables but we had to focus
where the greatest opportunities are,” he says.
Almost all the okra consumed in Ontario is currently trucked in from Florida or flown in from Nicaragua, says Brownridge, who adds that Canadian
farmers supplying the local market will have reduced
transportation costs and superior freshness, so produce should last longer and taste better.
Having successfully grown okra and round and
long eggplant, Brownridge is continuing his research
to get more reliable yield and cost-of-production figures. Data from 2013 showed a return above variable cost per acre for okra of $1,404/acre (based on
one-year data only).
Such ideas aren’t entirely new, says Filson. He
points out that Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
did extensive work 30 years ago, and as a result
many Asian greens such as bok choy and pak choy
are grown successfully in Ontario, especially in the
Holland Marsh. The Chinese have a long history in
Canada, he says.
April 2014
Early research puts net profits
for ethnic vegetables at up to
$1,400 or more per acre
However, Filson and Evan Elford, new-crop development specialist at the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, believe the conversation surrounding
import replacement with domestic production has
become more sophisticated, taking better account of
the nature of that particular business sector.
Even when markets exist, there are still many
hurdles for farmers, warns Elford. He says farmers should be cautious and do their background
research on markets and marketability. They need to
find out who their customers are, what they want,
what variety they are looking for, what growth stage
the vegetable should be harvested at and how it
needs to be packaged.
Elford recommends farmers determine the demographics of their local market and visit stores to get
a better understanding of the local marketplace. “A
grower in one area could easily have a market for
a non-traditional crop, while another 30 minutes
away may be unable to sell their crop,” Elford says.
“I’ve seen it first hand.”
Brownridge agrees. It’s essential that farmers
have a good understanding of what the market
wants. “Understanding the consumer mind has been
an important part of the research at Vineland,” he
says. Representatives of the retail sector have been
closely involved with the research since they understand what the consumer is looking for in terms of
appearance, taste, and quality. “You have to grow
what the consumer wants,” emphasizes Brownridge.
There may also be challenges in growing these
crops. For example, many of these crops require
a long growing season. It may be necessary to use
greenhouses, hoop houses or other means of extending the growing season, says Elford.
Continued on page 24
country-guide.ca 23
business
Continued from page 23
Weather variability is also an issue.
2012, which was hot, was a good year
but 2013 which was cooler, was not,
says Brownridge.
Farmers with European ancestry often
lack experience growing these ethno-cultural vegetables, while new Canadians
with an agriculture background are keen
to grow them but may lack access to land.
Debby Claude, manager of operations
at the Saskatoon Farmers Market says she
has seen new immigrants try to grow these
vegetables, but they are often surprised by
the harsh conditions and they have a high
failure rate.
These crops are very labour intensive
during the harvest season because they
require hand harvesting every day or
every other day for several weeks during
peak production.
Without solid yield and cost-of-production data for Ontario, it’s also difficult
to know how profits for these non-traditional crops compare with more traditional crops, cautions Elford. Vineland
Research Centre will be starting to gather
cost-of-production data in 2014.
The lack of solid economic data for
growing these crops in Canada may
make lenders reluctant to back the venture, and the lack of crop insurance may
also be a stumbling block.
Growers also need to consider how
well the crop fits in their operation.
“Just because they can grow it doesn’t
mean they should,” advises Elford.
For those wanting to explore some of
these ethno-cultural vegetables, Elford
has the following advice. Try growing
a small acreage, says Elford. And start
with cross-over produce. For example, a
grower could get some experience with
European eggplant first, and then could
try growing world varieties of eggplant,
he says.
Some farmers who sell direct to consumers through farmers markets or CSA
shares are successfully growing some of
these world crops. Brownridge is aware
BUILT FOR
BARLEY.
24 country-guide.ca April 2014
business
of a number of growers around Toronto,
Vancouver, and Montreal who are growing non-traditional crops such as okra
on a small scale now. He expects these
farmers will scale up production as they
gain more experience and more economic data becomes available.
Government funding may be available to help growers grow new crops
and access new markets, adds Elford.
For example, in Ontario the Growing
Forward2 Program ( www.omafra.gov.
on.ca/english/about/growingforward/gf2index.htm ) and the Local Food Fund /
www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/about/
local_food_guidebook.pdf) may provide
support to growers. CG
Resources
Specialty Cropportunities (interactive database with over 100 specialty crop profiles containing production, pest management and marketing information): www.omafra.gov.on.ca/CropOp/en/index.html.
ONSpecialtyCrops Blog (timely updates through the season for
specialty crop growers): http://onspecialtycrops.wordpress.com/.
A preliminary analysis of the economics and market potential for
okra is available here: www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/hort/news/
hortmatt/2013/08hrt13a3.htm.
Information on growing, harvest, storage and marketing world
crops is on the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre website at:
www.vinelandresearch.com.
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April 2014
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country-guide.ca 25
business
Untraditional
Greenhouses may not belong in the traditional farm stereotype, but Chris and Crystal Page reflect a new era of young
farmers diversifying for business, and for the challenge too
By Rebeca Kuropatwa
“A positive challenge to me means
your brain doesn’t stop,” Chris says.
“You’re always moving and thinking.”
So, what’s the best way forward? How do you
make different businesses complement each other?
In their upper 30s, Chris and Crystal Page from
Souris in southwest Manitoba are already involved in
three established and successful businesses: a grain farm,
seasonal greenhouse and custom spraying operation.
Crystal and Chris began dating in high school
and then married in 2000. Crystal began her career
as a dental assistant, but the summer when oldest
daughter McKenna was born, she changed her career
path, opting to work in the greenhouse which her
parents, Geraldine (“Gerry”) and Larry Sadler had
opened under the name Sadler’s Creekside Greenhouse some 20 years earlier on their farm at Elgin.
Chris’s parents, meanwhile, had begun farming in
the early 1970s, starting with roughly 1,000 acres,
which they have since grown to 2,600 acres, and in
1998, Chris came back to the farm after taking the agricultural diploma program at the University of Manitoba
(U of M), majoring in farm business management. 26 country-guide.ca Chris says the diversification wasn’t really
planned — it just sort of happened. “Crystal had a
passion for the greenhouse,” he explains.
Balancing the different parts of the two operations, however, is something Chris sees as a “positive
challenge.”
“Everything is fresh. When you go to the greenhouse, it’s a consistent thing year after year, but
there’s always something new. It’s the same with the
farm; every year is different,” says Chris. “A positive challenge to me means your brain doesn’t stop.
You always have a challenge and something to think
about. When you’re always moving and thinking, to
me that’s a healthy thing.”
The greenhouse
The greenhouse became a part of the Pages’ life
when their first child (McKenna, 11) was born and
Crystal’s parents thought a relocation of their business from the farm into the town of Souris would be
beneficial. Besides the main greenhouse in Souris, the
Sadlers have a greenhouse in Boissevain and stock
another greenhouse in Carnduff, Sask.
When the Pages looked at the numbers they decided
they would be better off with Crystal working in the
greenhouse and being closer to home to raise their growing family (which has since grown with the addition of
Kelsey, 9, and Raylee, 6). “Adding the greenhouse has
increased our income flow more than when Crystal was
working as a dental assistant,” says Chris. “The biggest
advantage is that we’re both self-employed, but work
together as needed. We have a lot of flexibility.”
The family has actually moved to town and have
a house right beside Crystal’s parents, because it
makes life a lot easier during the greenhouse season.
“The greenhouse is like having cattle, where you
need to be close to it,” says Chris. “Because the farm
is strictly grain and Mom and Dad’s place is only
four miles from town it’s easier for me to commute.”
Crystal’s parents still own the greenhouse and
Crystal works for them handling all the retail and
employee management while Gerry looks after the
growing side of the operation and Larry looks after
soil preparation, water maintenance and deliveries.
April 2014
Photography: Sandy Black
here can be as many reasons for running
a diversified farm business as there are
farms. Diversification can add income
stability and reduce overall operational
risk. It can exploit market opportunities,
enabling the farm family to take advantage of a lower
cost of entry than competitors who might not have
the same access to land or machinery. Sometimes, too,
diversification can give the farm a way to invest profits at higher rates of return than can be had through
banks or other investments.
But equally, diversification can be a risk, and even
a gamble, taking energy and investment away from
the farm’s core business.
It can even be untraditional, like incorporating a
greenhouse as part of a grain operation.
business
Sales have been increasing annually since the
move, and the greenhouse has a loyal following with
customers coming from miles away because Gerry,
who grows most of the bedding plants from seed, has
a reputation for quality and selection. “I’ve got some
relatives that live in Saskatoon, which is a seven-hour
drive, and they wait until they come down to visit my
Grandma to pick up some plants that aren’t offered
anywhere in any greenhouse between here and Saskatoon that they’ve found yet,” says Chris.
The greenhouse now runs from late-February
until mid-July and then reopens for the Christmas
season from November 1 to December 23 for sales
of poinsettias, Christmas trees and giftware.
The greenhouse is the one area where they have
to rely on seasonal employees and they have up to 14
people employed in the spring for transplanting and
sales. Crystal is in charge of scheduling the employees, which, she says, “includes a great group of ladies
who return every year, as well as students.”
April 2014
The greenhouse has a very low employee turnover rate and part of the reason for adding the
Christmas sales season was to try and keep some
of the younger seasonal employees around. “It was
something to help a couple of our staff that are
younger that are seasonal to stick around so that we
don’t lose them because they’re very good to us and
they’re good at their job and we don’t want to lose
them somewhere else.”
The grain business
Chris and his parents (John and Arlene Page)
farm 2,600 acres on a piece of land just north of
Souris, Man. John and Arlene are in charge of
roughly 1,100 acres, while Chris and Crystal work
roughly 1,500 acres on the books.
This gives them the ability to make decisions
independently, but they also consult with one
Continued on page 30
country-guide.ca 27
® The Cargill logo and MARKETSENSE are registered trade-marks of Cargill, Incorporated, used under licence. © 2014, Cargill Limited. All Rights Reserved.
“Why should you pay
a grain marketing
advisor when there
seems to be so
many other places
your money is
needed?”
Let Us Ride Shotgun with You
That pleasant, easy, summertime
journey of the past four years is at
an end. Today’s commodity markets
require all the vigilance, planning and
caution of a winter’s drive. Take risk
out of the journey — and off the table
— by inviting a grain marketing advisor
along for the ride.
With the canola and wheat markets
the way they are now, it’s more like
embarking on a wintertime journey.
As you know, winter driving requires
planning ahead, and the likelihood
of making an error is greater, and the
consequences more serious. Now is
the time to be extra vigilant.
These are turbulent times. For some of
you, prices have fallen so far you feel
you’re close to break-even levels, and
paying for grain marketing advice now
could take you below those levels. This
is an understandable reaction. However,
this is the time you’re at greatest risk
and in need of help — the likelihood of
making a mistake, and its consequences,
are far greater during market downturns
than when markets are good.
Why should you pay a grain marketing
advisor when there seems to be so many
other places your money is needed?
First of all, a good advisor will force you
to have a grain marketing plan. You and
your advisor will craft this plan during
a time when emotional biases will not
influence your decisions.
Let me explain by drawing an analogy:
when you set out on a summertime
drive, you worry about some pretty
minor things as you embark. Along
the way, if you change your plan, the
consequences of that detour are pretty
insignificant. Generally the journey is
simple, it’s usually desirable, and it’s
one you choose to make. This easy and
carefree summertime drive is the journey
commodity markets have taken us on for
the past four years.
A good advisor is also looking out for
you all week long, watching the markets
on your behalf. This person alerts you to
events you should be paying attention
to, whether it’s an opportunity to sell
because something favourable has
happened in the market or something
you should deal with proactively.
Your advisor should be there riding
shotgun with you to give you some
peace of mind so you don’t have to fret
about the markets. To read the complete
story, visit asktheexpertnetwork.ca.
Keith Brownell,
Regional Grain Marketing
Services Manager
business
Continued from page 27
another before any final decisions are
made — operating together, dependent
on each other.
John does the seeding and Chris does
the spraying and fertilizing. When harvest comes, Chris runs the combine and
John trucks the grain. With 2,600 acres
and no hired help, operations need to be
well planned.
The Pages have been growing a wide
variety of grain over the years, from Red
Spring wheat to winter wheat, barley,
canola, Nexera canola, flax, mustard and
soybeans. They have tightened their rotation over the last five years to two kinds
of wheat and two kinds of canola, with
small test acres of soybeans.
The farm takes up most of Chris’s time,
with a pre-seed or pre-emergence burnoff
on almost every acre. This, combined with
fertilizing each field just ahead of the drill,
has Chris covering two to three times the
number of acres John does. But, Chris
notes, “the machines I operate are wider
and run faster, so time spent in the field
may only be one and half times.”
The Pages also operate a small spraying business where they do all of one
neighbour’s spraying as well as their own
— combined, about 15,000-20,000 acres
per year.
The two families try, wherever possible,
to handle the workload on their own and
the Pages admit they are very lucky to have
two sets of in-laws who get on well and
are always ready to help one another out.
“My dad has had some health issues
in the last couple of years, so Crystal and
her mom and dad have come out and
helped. Larry has run the combine for us
and I’ve not had to worry about hiring
somebody or having do it on my own,”
says Chris. “My mom is very important to the operation too, from driving
truck and moving equipment to making
meals, and my dad will just stop into the
greenhouse and he’ll carry on a conversation as I’m sitting there working, and of
course he ends up helping out too.”
In addition, the flexibility that Chris
and Crystal have to cross over into the
two separate enterprises is a great strength
and one that leaves them plenty of options
for the future. “Crystal helps out when
she can at harvest time but doesn’t often
have as much time in the spring when I am
getting crop in,” says Chris. “But by late
September and early October, she’s already
decorating in the greenhouse for Christ30 country-guide.ca mas so she can be on top of it before all
the figure skating and hockey things start
up with the kids. If we were to close the
Christmas side of things at the greenhouse
then we might be able to do more on the
grain side of things because then I would
have a consistent combine driver.”
Management
There is only one machine — a loader
tractor — that is shared by both the farm
and the greenhouse, since both receive
and ship many deliveries throughout the
growing season.
Still, the diversified approach means
that accommodations must be made. On
the farm side, Chris and Crystal will prob-
For Crystal and
Chris the learning
is: It takes passion
and support to make
diversification work
ably have to adopt a one-pass seeding
operation. They already have a plan in
place to address this in the near future.
They may also need to downsize their current spraying operation.
On the greenhouse side, there may be
more options, but it all boils down to the
need to find and hire good personnel and
build a financial plan that works with the
extra associated costs.
“We know we can’t do it all,” said
Chris. “As Crystal’s mom does all the
seeding and growing at the greenhouse
and her dad does all the soil prep, watering, maintenance and deliveries, we may
need to hire someone to manage the
retail side and have Crystal move into
the growing side of the operation.”
For several years after he started
farming Chris did some bookkeeping
and tax preparation for a local accountant, but now he only has time to handle
the books for his part of the farm and
the greenhouse using a spreadsheet program he developed himself.
“I do both sets of books,” says Chris.
“It saves us a little money, but I also
know exactly where we sit financially in
both businesses and comparing the numbers year after year helps me see where
we might gain some efficiencies. It’s easier
April 2014
business
to talk to lending reps when you know
where you sit, without having to put a
lot of thought into it with your numbers
already rolling through your head.”
The future
Apart from their growing businesses and
family, it is very important to both Chris
and Crystal that they contribute in other
ways to the town of Souris. Chris serves
as a school board trustee and on the minor
hockey board, as well as being an active
hockey coach. Crystal serves on the figure
skating board.
Both dream of increasing the grain as
well as the greenhouse operations, but
acknowledge there are always risks and
they are unique to each enterprise.
The farm’s equipment is large enough so
they could easily add an additional 1,0001,500 acres, says Chris. “If it was any more,
we’d have to start changing some of our
bigger pieces of equipment and add some
different crops into our rotation.”
In the greenhouse, space does not seem
to be a limiting factor, though they may
need to upgrade some of the structures
(which Chris anticipates will make for more
floor space on the same footprint).
With about half an acre of growing and
retail space, there is definitely room to grow
more, assuming the Pages can find a market
for the extra product, and the labour to get it
produced.
“Balance hasn’t been too much of a
struggle as of yet, but as both sets of parents
get closer to retirement, it may come to the
forefront,” says Chris. He and Crystal know
that the next thing on the agenda for the two
families is succession planning, which they
haven’t really immersed themselves in yet.
“We don’t have a succession plan in
place with Crystal’s mom and dad nor do
we have with my mom and dad on the grain
side of things,” says Chris. “Both sets of
parents are still active in what we’re doing
and haven’t really shed a light on when their
retirement may or may not be.”
“There is risk with both enterprises.
I’ve lost crops and didn’t plant a crop at
least three times since I began farming 16
years ago,” says Chris. “Going into this
season we’re thinking, with it being one of
the coldest winters on record we may be
swamped early on in the spring because
people are so sick of -50. But next year it
could be different again.
“There’s always risk on both sides,”
Chris says. “But I don’t really view it as a
risk. I think it’s a good and different diversification.” CG
April 2014
country-guide.ca 31
business
The market farmer
Can small farms survive? With $140,000 in sales
from a few acres, Jean-Martin Fortier insists his can
By Steven Biggs, CG Contributing Editor
“We challenge the
belief that the
small family farm
cannot stay afloat,”
Fortier says.
t was early January when I clicked through a
farm website and saw the page where JeanMartin Fortier listed his upcoming workshops.
His late-March workshop in nearby Montreal,
with space for 50 people, was already sold out.
“Neat,” I thought. “People in the city are paying to
listen to a farmer.”
But is he a farmer?
Or, as I came to wonder, does that question really
miss the point?
After watching him on video, it’s no surprise that
Fortier fills the workshop. He has a stage presence
that you might not guess from his photographs.
It’s a combination that connects with people. He’s
young, articulate and charismatic with a touch of
self-deprecating humour. (In Paris recently, he jokingly told his audience they might need a translator
to understand his Quebec French.)
His book about his farm, Le Jardinier-Maraicher , has sold 16,000 copies since its fall 2012
release, including an incredible 6,000 outside of
32 country-guide.ca Quebec. With 5,000 copies making a book a bestseller in Canada, this is astounding.
When I ask Fortier about the 10,000 copies sold
in Quebec, I wonder out loud how many farms there
are in the province. He stops me and explains that
it’s not just farmers and aspiring farmers buying his
book. “It’s your average Joe,” he says. Consumers,
too, want to hear Fortier’s farming story.
Small farm business thinking
Fortier’s book is a personal narrative that tells
readers about his journey into farming and then
shares his model for success. What’s unexpected is
that Fortier has found success where many farm
commentators say he shouldn’t — on a very small
family farm.
“We challenge the belief that the small family
farm cannot stay afloat in today’s economy,” Fortier
says in the book. And at a time when many people
worry about job security, Fortier says that unlike
employees of large companies, “I have job security.”
For Fortier, staying very small has been a big part
of the recipe for success. And being small, he says,
need not mean small income. Nor must growth in
income necessarily come from a bigger operation.
On their 10-acre property, called Les Jardins de la
Grelinette, he and his wife Maude-Helene Desroches
farm 1-1/2 acres. “To grow better instead of bigger
became the basis of our model,” explains Fortier. He
contrasts this to the conventional model to “extensify” production over a larger area. While mechanization is often seen as the way to get higher profit,
he says it doesn’t have to be that way. “Instead,” he
says, “we opted to stay small scale.”
To illustrate why he believes in intensifying production as opposed to expanding the land base, he tells
readers how, when first raising crops on one-quarter
acre of rented land, he sold $20,000 worth of vegetables; and then the next year, with the same space,
$55,000 worth of vegetables, i.e. more than double.
The following year, with his own farm and 1-1/2
cultivated acres, he sold $80,000 worth of vegetables
— a figure that climbed to $100,000 the subsequent
year. As we later chat on the phone, I find out that
this figure is now roughly $140,000.
While Fortier is not opposed to mechanization, he
says expensive machinery doesn’t necessarily make
farming more profitable. If two options give equally
April 2014
business
good results, cost is his deciding factor. That has
meant eschewing a conventional tractor and opting for a small, two-wheeled “walking” tractor.
Aside from costing less than a conventional tractor,
it allows the intensive spacing that he favours. Less
emphasis on machinery, he says, means most of his
operating costs are inputs, not machinery.
“We’ll have 10 rows of carrots instead of three,”
he says, explaining the benefit of not having to tie in
crop spacing to conventional, tractor-drawn equipment. That means more yield from the same space,
reduced costs for material such as row covers, and
less labour for tasks such as mulching and weeding.
In addition, he grows a succession of crops to keep
the land producing.
Fortier emphasizes that revenue is only part of the
equation, saying, “Revenue minus expenses equals
profit.” He keeps a careful eye on expenses and
does not buy into the notion that good profitability
requires high costs. “Our market garden demonstrates that high profits can be made without high
costs,” he says, adding, “Our low-tech strategy kept
our startup costs to a minimum and our overhead
expenses low.”
Sell smart, grow less
To bolster the revenue side of the equation, Fortier sells some of his produce directly to consumers,
keeping profit that would normally go to retailers
and distributors. The way he sees it, when he doesn’t
need to give retailers and distributors approximately
two-thirds the value of his produce, he can grow onethird as much and make the same profit.
Fortier is a big believer in having an identifiable
logo. In the local supermarket, which sells his product, his logo appears next to his produce. “At the
local grocery store, customers swear by our products,
which they recognize easily,” he says.
Maximizing revenue also means adding value. It
can be as simple, he says, as leaving the tops on carrots. Bunched carrots with leaves usually fetch more
per pound than bagged ones. He also considers the
revenue a crop can bring in and how much time and
space it requires. By doing this, he has determined
that greenhouse cucumbers are four times more profitable than turnip, and that a bed of lettuce brings in
as much as leeks, but in half the time.
With wife Maude-Helene Desroches, Fortier says their low-tech strategy is actually an
efficient business model, generating reliable family income and security.
Practical idealism
Neither Fortier nor Desroches are from a farm
background. After graduating from the McGill
School of Environment, they went on a two-year
journey to the U.S. and Mexico, working on small
farms. “I had found practical idealism,” he says in
the book. Returning home, they rented land and
started their first market garden.
The couple wanted their own farm, but knew that
buying land meant the business would have to bring
in enough money to cover payments on land, build-
Fortier doesn’t own a tractor, and doesn’t plan to buy one. Instead, he builds his
management system around generating healthy net returns per acre.
Continued on page 34
April 2014
country-guide.ca 33
BUSINESS
Continued from page 33
ings, and house, and also raise their family. They
eventually found their current farm in St-Armand,
Quebec, south of Montreal, in 2004.
Fortier’s favourite tool — the antithesis of mechanization — is the broadfork (called a grelinette in
French). This tool, he explains, allows deep aeration without inverting soil layers. “We named our
business after the tool because we found the grelinette emblematic of manual, ecological and effective
organic gardening,” he says.
Fortier pays a lot of attention to soil biology,
which he says helps replace some mechanical labour.
“Our objective has always been to create a cropping
system that strikes a balance between yield, longterm fertility, and efficiency,” he says. To do this,
he practises minimum tillage, growing in permanent
raised beds.
He points out that many people get into organic
farming for philosophical reasons, but he says it’s
still a business, and it’s important to treat it as one.
“I would not be too hasty in brushing aside proven
solutions from experienced growers, even if they do
not seem ‘ideal,’” he says. For example, while he
likes the concept of no till, a lot of crop debris in the
market garden is impractical. So he’s found a middle
ground, using shallow cultivation. For him, no till is
an approach, not a doctrine.
34 country-guide.ca
Garden or farm?
Fortier says he calls himself a market gardener to
emphasize that he works with hand tools. But some
people have trouble seeing him as a farmer, not a
gardener. One bank loan officer declared this was
not a real business — a real farm — and him not a
farmer.
In the conclusion of his book, Fortier, who is
35, says he feels privileged to find such a satisfying
calling so early in life. I later ask Fortier whether
he would do anything differently if he were to start
again. “Yes, for sure,” he says, but adds that he’s
very happy with the way things are now, and that
getting here was a learning process.
His story about food and farming is reaching a
lot of people. After chatting, I head back to the website and then to his Facebook pages: 2,100 “likes”
for the farm, 2,400 for the book. Then I spot a
November 2013 blog post saying that the French
edition was No. 1 on Amazon France’s bestselling list
of gardening books.
The English language edition, T HE M ARKET
GARDENER (www.themarketgardener.com) was released
in early 2014. Stay tuned. CG
APRIL 2014
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Company. © 2014 Syngenta.
business
Better employees
Performance reviews can boost farm productivity,
if you know what you’re doing
By Helen Lammers-Helps
t’s been said that farming is big business in
every way except how we manage it. Maybe
such a statement used to be more true than
it is today, but many farm businesses are
still skipping performance appraisals, which
means they are also missing out on the benefits of
this process.
It begins by busting two major myths.
Performance reviews aren’t just for big companies, says Larry Martin, principal of Agri-Food
Management Excellence, an executive management
training program in Guelph, Ont. Companies with
as few as two employees will benefit from conducting performance reviews, he says.
And employees who are family should get
reviewed too, says Michelle Painchaud, president
and CEO of Painchaud Performance Group in Winnipeg. “Everyone who works in the farm business
— family or non-family, full time or part time —
should participate in the employee performance
review,” Painchaud says.
In fact, Painchaud finds going through the performance review process often clears “the fog” around
decisions that have been made in family farm businesses. “Performance appraisals create an opportu-
Most common mistakes
1. Employee doesn’t know the performance
standards they’re expected to meet.
2. The review process is too long and complicated,
and the questions aren’t applicable to the farm.
3. Only the manager speaks, and there is little
opportunity for employee input.
4. Manager not being honest with feedback in
order to keep the discussion easy.
5. Manager is unprepared and distracted by texts,
and interrupted by phone calls during the
discussion so the employee doesn’t feel valued.
6. No followup. If you say you will arrange
additional training for the employee, be sure to
set target dates. Then deliver on time.
36 country-guide.ca nity for dialogue,” Painchaud says. “It’s not often an
employee gets one-on-one time with his or her boss to
talk about their own situation,” says Painchaud, who
has heard many employees say, “Oh, now I understand why Dad made that decision.”
There are three main reasons for poor employee
performance, says Painchaud.
1. Lack of clear expectations. The employee doesn’t
understand what the manager really wants.
2. Lack of skills or resources. The employee doesn’t
know how to do the job, or they don’t have the
necessary tools or resources to do the job.
3. Lack of consequences — negative or positive. If an
employee is performing poorly but no one tells him
or her, then the employee cannot improve. And
when someone is a high performer but they don’t
get positive feedback, they will lose motivation.
The performance appraisal process, when done
well, will help ensure your employees are doing the
job you need them to do, and it will also reduce the
expense and stress of high employee turnover.
By not only ensuring that there are clear expectations for the employee, but also that the employee
has the training, tools and resources needed to perform their job, and that the employee received feedback on their work, the stage can be set to improve
employee performance and retain good employees.
When done properly, the performance review
process results in employees who are more engaged
and more motivated, and who will work harder
and safer because they can see their contribution to
the business, says Lori Weir, a senior management
consultant and president of Above the Line, Inc., in
Saint John, N.B.
If not done correctly, however, performance
reviews can leave employees feeling frustrated.
Doing it right doesn’t have to be that difficult,
though, as long as you stick to some concepts.
To begin with, Martin emphasizes that the
employee should feel positive about the performance appraisal. “It should be a celebration of what
they’ve done, not just criticism.”
The important thing, agrees Weir, is not to focus
on the negative but instead to focus on ways to
improve. “Everyone can improve,” she says. Then
figure out what supports, training or mentoring will
help the employee improve.
april 2014
business
Before attempting to evaluate an employee’s performance, it’s essential that they know what’s expected of
them. Employees should understand the focus of the
company and should have a job description. If you
haven’t made progress on these, this is where to start.
The farm should also be working toward ongoing positive, supportive relationships with its
employees, so there shouldn’t be any surprises for
the employee, says Martin. “A good manager provides feedback all along so the formal performance
appraisal is just a summary.”
Templates for performance appraisals can be
found on the Internet but Painchaud warns that
these should only be used for inspiration. She recommends keeping it simple, no more than a page
in length, and making sure that the questions are
relevant to your business.
Performance appraisals need not be time consuming. Most experts agree conducting the performance review annually or semi-annually is often
enough. Martin says a company might do it quarterly during a period of change.
However, there is no “one-size fits all” approach
when it comes to performance appraisals. Weir
believes that while larger companies (those with
more than 75 employees) will need to rely on a
formalized employee performance appraisal system,
smaller companies may benefit from a more informal coaching process.
As with the formalized process, it’s imperative
that the employee know what good performance
looks like, says Weir. “The manager and employee
need to sit down and agree on what specific tasks,
what quantity and quality, are expected.”
Then figure out what supports will help the
employee improve, says Weir. “Keep the focus on
ways to improve.”
John Anderson, a farm financial adviser with
Collins Barrow WCM LLP in eastern Ontario recommends a system where the employee assesses his
or her work first, followed by a discussion with the
manager. He says the appraisal form should include
questions like: How did I do? How would I rank
myself? Where do I need help? How can I overcome
my weaknesses? What roles would I like to have?
After completing the performance appraisal, the
employee should sit down with their manager in a
private space, free from distractions, and discuss the
results of the self-appraisal. Together the employee
and manager can create a development plan. “It’s a
team effort,” says Anderson.
Some companies are reframing the review process in terms of the performance of the business and
the employee’s contribution to that performance,
says Painchaud. There is also an opportunity for the
employee to give feedback on the manager.
Whichever system you use, performance appraisals are about communication, insists Anderson. “It’s
an opportunity.” CG
april 2014
Tips for effective
performance reviews
1. Book the meeting with the employee at least a
week in advance. Ask the employee to prepare
by reviewing his or her own performance.
2. Choose a private, neutral location where you
won’t be distracted, and schedule enough time
so the employee won’t feel rushed. An hour is
usually appropriate but leave extra time in case
it’s needed.
3. Review the employee’s performance in advance
of the meeting so you will be prepared. It helps
to get in the routine of keeping an ongoing file of
notes on an employee’s work during the year.
4. Identify specific areas where the employee
performs well.
5. Identify specific areas where improvement
is needed.
6. Prepare specific goals for the next year. Focus on
one or two areas of improvement.
country-guide.ca 37
business
The right partner
In today’s farming,
partnerships make
more sense than
ever… as long as
you know how to find
the right partner
By Amy Petherick
A
38
p rci ol u 2
n0
t r1y 4- g u i d e . c a artnerships and agriculture are
so closely entwined that even
the smallest children know
from singing about the farmer
in the dell that the farmer’s
first job is “to take a wife.”
If only farm partnerships were so easy.
With the farm community shrinking
so fast, and now accounting for a mere
1.5 per cent of all Canadians according
to the 2011 Census of Agriculture, the
odds are stacking up against your bumping into your ideal future business partner
anywhere in your neighbourhood or even
in the ordinary run of life.
Actually, it’s even harder than that
because for the first time ever in this
country, there are more farmers aged 55
and over than any other age group. Since
older farmers may be less interested in
building new partnerships, the available
pool is even smaller than our already
meagre numbers suggest.
Not to be too sexist, but this may
mean the equivalent of a wave of “city
girls” is about to enter into the industry,
providing the extra operational vigour
that is being chased by the farmers who
are looking for new partnerships.
Or, it might inspire more creative
solutions.
One question Grant Robinson, a
business transition specialist with BDO
Canada in Guelph, Ont., has been
known to ask first is: “Do you even
really need a partner?”
“Don’t just bring someone on because
you want their money,” Robinson warns,
although he suspects this strategy is still
popular enough.
Instead, with a bit of a play on words,
he encourages partnership seekers to
weigh their decisions according to three
different types of capital. “The capital
you’re trying to deal with in a partnership is social, intellectual and physical
capital, and you have to try to bring all
those things together,” Robinson says.
c o u n t r y - gA upi rd ie l. c 2a 0 X
1X
4
business
Robinson says physical capital can be
thought of as asset which you manage in
a transactional way. For these, he says,
you’ll have a partnership agreement that
outlines how things of monetary value
will be handled jointly.
Intellectual capital, however, is about
the knowledge of the business and how
you plan to run the place, including who
makes decisions about what. This is an
especially important consideration in
inter-generational partnerships.
Finally, Robinson says, social capital
is where the personal interactions and
even a kind of corporate culture come in.
Robinson sums it up succinctly: “If you
don’t like an individual on a social level,
if you don’t like to socialize together, if
you’re not connected in the community
together, that’s pretty good evidence that
you shouldn’t be business partners.”
Jolene Brown, a family business consultant who covers North America from
her base in West Branch, Iowa, talks
ness, whatever it is. The second thing is if
partners want to see each other succeed as
much as they want to succeed themselves,
and that they work to help one another in
this way. The third and final component
she looks for is a willingness to work
through conflict and problems.
“Don’t invest in joint assets until
you really know you can be good partners,” Brown warns. “Make sure you
have the right mix of experience, education, personality and character.” She
strongly believes in a year’s probationary agreement before locking into a formal structure with family or non-family
members.
“When you’re talking partnerships,
in all the many structures,” Brown says,
“it’s important you discuss termination
early, so that if you feel ‘we’re not a
good fit,’ pending certain notice, there’s
no hard feelings, ‘we can still be family
or friends,’ but not working together.”
Brown believes there are a number of
“A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship.” — John D. Rockefeller
about social capital as a critical element
in forming a good business partnership.
But she’s more apt to call it goodwill.
“If you have goodwill, you will have a
heart-felt desire to work together toward
the common goals of the business, help
each other succeed, and work though
challenges to get along,” Brown says.
Part of your commitment to the partnership, Brown advises, is to get things
clarified and in writing, such as a communications contract, a code of conduct,
a buy-sell agreement and even a conflict
management plan.“When goodwill is
gone, it is really tough,” Brown says.
“That, more than anything in my opinion, breaks up partnerships.”
Whether farmers choose to partner with
a spouse, family, or some external friend,
she says goodwill must be evident not just
when everyone is happy or when prices are
high, but also when people are tired and
conflict emerges in the partnership.
Brown says goodwill is one of the
first things she goes looking for when she
takes on new clients, and she measures it
based on three characteristics. The first,
she says, is a willingness to work towards
that defined common goal of the busiApril 2014
other elements that make a good partnership work. First and foremost, she
says, common business goals need to
be defined. She even likes to see them
outlined in a one-page overview that
includes clear job descriptions and
expressed standards for responsibilities.
Brown also feels every farm partnership needs a leader who understands the
“people business” aspect of farming, not
just production.
Other important elements are a
defined communication process that centres around purposeful meetings, conflict
management protocols, and compensation that befits worthy partners doing
worthy work.
Brown also cautions that every partnership agreement needs a defined exit
strategy for one or both partners.
Brown tells me that if you’re thinking about business partners being married partners, it’s important to remember
that, “If you want to honour the marriage, and the family, you’d better do the
business right. If not,” she warns, “at
the end of the day you may have neither
family nor business.”
It’s advice that Dan Ohler, an inde-
pendent relationship and communication specialist from Sangudo, Alta., is
quick to echo. Having been there himself, farming with his wife Carol and his
parents once upon a time, he personally
understands how miserable life can get
when partnerships go bad.
“When we left the farm, we were so
close to going our separate ways,” Ohler
says. “People need to know they can’t
afford not to work on their relationship.”
But far more commonly, he says couples wait until things have gone sour.
Ohler says most people struggling with
their farm marriage confess to him that
they’re thinking about their problems
anywhere from 50 to 90 per cent of the
time. Not only does this mean a serious loss of productivity, but it can be
downright dangerous, considering all the
hazards of farm work.
If you’re tempted to consider divorce,
be forewarned, Ohler says. “There can
be a huge financial cost, expecially if it
means selling off farm assets. And it can
get really ugly.”
Start by recognizing what your happiness is actually worth, Ohler says.
“People are busy, absolutely, but
there’s always time to do the important
things,” Ohler says. “If people can realize the importance of the relationship
with their spouse, especially in a farm
operation, then the farm can be incredibly productive and effective.”
Ohler says a simple strategy is thinking about your partner as much as or
more than you think about yourself.
Looking for ways to improve is usually
not rocket science but something almost
everyone can stand to do more often.
Ideas can include reading a book
together about relationships, taking
some kind of course, or starting on some
coaching, Ohler says. Even a weekend
away from the farm, just to be together
to work on their relationship, away from
regular routines, can work wonders.
“The tough thing is having the courage to really sit down and have a structured meeting, with an agenda, and
break into pieces the business piece and
the family piece,” Ohler says.
Strong farm partnerships ensure fulfillment and prosperity, Robinson and
Brown agree. So whether you’re “taking
a wife” or a partner of any other kind,
make sure it’s the right one, for the business’s sake as well as your own. CG
country-guide.ca 39
BUSINESS
BREAK AN EGG
Alberta’s new EPIC plant finds extraordinary value in
what used to be a very ordinary farm commodity
By Yvonne Dick
f you’re looking to break some eggs, set your
GPS to the city of Lethbridge. Egg breaking
is becoming southwest Alberta’s newest way
to make money.
There, in a refurbished dairy plant, you
will find a new business called EPIC, which stands
for Egg Processing Innovations Cooperative.
It’s owned by the United Egg Farmers of Alberta,
and got a big send-off into the business world last
June with the help of grants and support from the
Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency (ALMA).
“We are taking all the
eggs we can get our
hands on,” says Forbes.
That’s 2.1 million a week
Inside Alberta, ALMA needs little introduction.
For readers outside the province, it’s good to know
that ALMA’s mandate is to encourage new farm
initiatives with grants, information and investment
“to help Alberta’s livestock and meat industry
become more profitable, sustainable and internationally respected.”
In Lethbridge, the goal for the new EPIC plant
has been differentiated from the outset for the
40 country-guide.ca
province’s former but more modest egg-breaking
endeavour at Airdrie, just north of Calgary. It’s
also differentiated from the huge egg-breaking
plants in the U.S. that cast a shadow over North
America’s egg markets.
Between the two extremes, EPIC believes it has
found a value niche.
The project in Airdrie was a 50/50 ownership
between the egg farmers’ co-operative and Vanderpol’s Eggs. (The Vanderpol’s main branch is in
Abbotsford, B.C.)
During its evolution, Vanderpol’s Eggs at Airdrie struck an agreement with biotech company
IRI Separation Technologies. IRI’s goal was to focus
on the extraction of antibodies from eggs for use in
things such as natural food products and pharmaceuticals, since the antibodies that can be extracted from
eggs are similar to the beneficial human kind.
At Airdrie, then, Vanderpol’s would handle the
sale and distribution of liquid egg products, leaving
IRI to focus on the separation technologies.
IRI struggled, however. By 2009 it was looking
to restructure and merge with other companies, but
its last public mention was in 2011, about the same
time the Airdrie plant ceased operations.
In Lethbridge, meanwhile, Bruce Forbes was given
the CEO’s job to get the EPIC plant off the ground.
“I was hired to write the business plan and oversee
things,” says Forbes, “We are very happy with how
smoothly we were able to get things into place.”
APRIL 2014
BUSINESS
With equipment from the former egg-breaking
plant in Airdrie, it took about a year to finalize the
deal and begin operations.
Raw, shelled eggs are used for many different
products. To put it simply, the egg shell is used for
calcium, while what’s inside the egg is used for convenience products such as liquid eggs, as well as a
pet food additive for Champion Pets. However, the
full lineup of end uses via EPIC’s processing methods is far longer.
Making eggs
At the Lethbridge plant, a machine breaks some
18,750 dozen eggs a day and then separates yolks
from whites, eggs from shells, and shells from membranes. Liquid egg is pasteurized and can be used in
food products such as ice cream, mayonnaise and
noodles, as well as in healthier “egg white only” liquid egg products. There are myriad other food markets as well, including markets for pasteurized liquid
whole egg, pasteurized albumin (including pharmacology use among others), and pasteurized yolks.
A range of cooking and related products are
blended for food-service companies as well, and
users of egg shell membranes and egg shell calcium
are other possible markets.
On the non-food side, nutraceutical companies,
researchers and other clientele are increasingly looking at new uses for the egg byproducts, yolks and
whites. Egg membrane is important, as is the calcium inside the shell. Some future product partners
could be companies making cinder-blocks, nutraceuticals (calcium based and joint health supplements)
and more.
At peak capacity, EPIC can process 2.1 million
eggs per week, producing 90 tonnes of liquid egg
products. Egg supply, however, is lagging behind the
plant’s needs.
This slowed down the first half year of operations more than EPIC would like. “Things are starting to pick up now, but there is an overall egg
shortage in the province so we are actively lookContinued on page 42
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business
Continued from page 41
ing for bigger operations to get more
eggs,” says Forbes.
The reason for needing largerproducing farms is that eggs must
be from cage-free chickens, and
it isn’t always the most fuel- or
product-efficient to be sourcing
from numerous smaller farms.
Eggs must also be graded before
delivery to EPIC.
“Our facilities are great. Demand
for our products currently exceeds supplies, however,” Forbes says. “We are taking
all the eggs we can get our hands on. Going
farm to farm, we are talking to farmers about
switching to cage-free poultry farming and
building our supply chain.”
Previously, non-table egg breaking and processing was shipped out to British Columbia
and Saskatchewan plants. Starting in 2008, British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario launched
cage-free poultry campaigns. A 2012 ban in the
EU of caged birds has motivated many producers
to make the switch. EU poultry may reside only in
enriched cages with perches, nest boxes and freerange setups.
According to an Egg Farmers of Alberta’s press
release, 85 per cent of Alberta eggs came from hens
in conventional cages in 2012. This number was
down from 98 per cent in 2006.
Gordon Cove, CEO at ALMA, predicts expanding value for the egg sector. He calls egg breaking “a
whole new area” and in media reports has said the
Lethbridge plant “has the potential to be a catalyst
for the entire egg industry.”
Currently at 14 employees, EPIC originally
forecast revenues of $2.5 million in the first
year. Whether that will be met in the second half
remains to be seen. However, the plant has room
for future expansion and, at an originally predicted 22-employee capacity, might inject a total
gross annual output of $5 million to the Alberta
economy. The Lethbridge location also boasts the
advantage of being near to many food-product
companies and processors.
EPIC offers an “engineered” egg solution
according to customer specifications. Enriched feed
eggs, fertilized eggs and a range of unique traits
can be important to nutraceutical manufacturers.
In some product and research categories, customers
may also be seeking such things as inseminated and
incubated eggs.
“Because we are producer-owned and we do
work closely with our suppliers, we can ensure that
42 country-guide.ca “Things are starting to
pick up,” Forbes says.
“We are actively looking
for bigger operations.”
our end-customer gets the exact product they are
looking for,” says Forbes.
Currently, Alberta is the largest net importer of
interprovincial egg products in Canada. Through the
EPIC plant, Alberta’s egg industry hopes to boost its
value-added capacity in egg processing.
At the grand opening, Verlyn Olson, Alberta
agriculture minister, said, “We’re very proud to
have the EPIC plant in Alberta. The work done here
benefits our egg producers and the local economy
by creating jobs and a steady source of demand for
eggs. More importantly, it benefits all Albertans by
giving consumers additional value-added options for
egg products.”
In practical terms at EPIC, things will be running closer to original plans when egg supply
meets demand.
EPIC wants egg producers with strong yields to
take note, saying this is a chance to really get their
sales figures cracking.
It’s also a chance to crack open new markets,
Forbes says. “Nothing of the egg will be unused. We
will be processing the entire product.” CG
april 2014
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business
Co-op succession?
The lack of succession planning helps explain why so many
co-ops are being sold, and why even more are in danger
By Gerald Pilger
he only thing farmers seem to do better than growing vast amounts of grain
seems to be selling off ownership of the
industry, especially in the West. In February of this year, Parrish and Heimbecker
purchased the 112,000-tonne farmer-owned Weyburn
Inland Terminal. Just a month earlier, Viterra bought
the 42,000-tonne Lethbridge Inland Terminal that had
been co-operatively built in 2007 by more than 150
southern Alberta farm operations.
Of course, we also remember the sales of the farmerbuilt Prairie pools and United Grain Growers.
People argue why these and other farmer-owned
grain-handling co-operatives were sold. Reasons include
being too small to compete in the global markets, overregulation of the industry, not enough regulation, the
existence of the CWB, the loss of the CWB, mismanagement, the inability of co-ops to raise funds for upgrades
and expansion, and ideology and politics.
However, there is one reason rarely brought forward which farmers need to think about, not only to
account for what happened to these co-operatives,
but to prevent the same sorts of buyouts from happening to thousands more member-owned businesses,
ranging from the few remaining independent grain
facilities to farm supply co-operatives, rural gas and
electrical co-ops, and credit unions.
That factor is a lack of business succession planning.
Why are we not planning for the succession of our cooperative businesses to the next farming generation?
One of the main reasons co-ops disappear may
simply be an increasing lack of knowledge of what
co-operatives are. Many farmers no longer differentiate between the corporate and co-operative business
models. Failure to educate and update the co-operative directors, staff, prospective co-op members,
and even current membership on the advantages and
benefits of being a co-operative may be the leading
cause of co-operatives transitioning to a corporate or
private ownership structure.
Dr. Greg McKee, ag economist at North Dakota
State University, argues that each co-op must have an
ongoing education program. “Co-ops must communicate with the membership to prevent misunderstandings,” McKee says. “They need to educate the core
membership on the role of a co-op. They need to provide
leadership training to the board.”
This is not to say that co-ops can ignore supply44 country-guide.ca and-demand forces, and McKee is quick to agree
that co-ops must be competitive to remain in business. To retain their membership, he says, co-ops
must compete with all other businesses in both price
and quality of products and service.
Leadership
In their working paper “Succession Planning in Nonprofit Organizations” published by the Centre for Nonprofit Strategy and Management at Baruch College, New
York, researchers identified an “impending leadership
deficit” for co-operatives and non-profit organizations.
The authors found by survey that only 18 per cent of
co-operatives have developed a formal plan for CEO
transition. The paper’s summary stated: “Both types of
organizations see succession planning as important, yet
are doing relatively little about it.”
Quality leadership is as important to success in a
co-operative as it is in any other business. According
to McKee, a board must “define the characteristics
desired for the CEO, aligning CEO succession with
business goals and ensuring that a pool of qualified
candidates exists. Selection of the CEO is the most
important activity of the board of directors. Planning
for CEO succession is a board responsibility and the
board should not wait for the CEO to raise the issue.”
McKee also says succession planning needs to go
beyond simply setting a procedure for replacing the
CEO, and also must identify the skills and traits needed
in a CEO as well as encourage the development of these
skills in management personnel within the co-op.
McKee feels the same attention must be paid to
selection of directors of the co-op. The current board
needs to seek out members who have the attributes
desired in a director. They must actively recruit and
educate potential directors.
McKee even recommends that co-ops consider having a non-member director on the board if that person
brings needed skills to the board table.
The Ontario Co-operative Association suggests adding a youth directorship to the board of a co-operative.
This provides a learning opportunity not only for a
young person but for the board as well. (A check is
needed of provincial legislation to determine how old a
person must be to be a director — usually 18.)
It is important that boards which bring in a
youth director ensure the youth director has all
the rights and responsibilities of any directorship,
April 2014
business
including voting privileges. A youth director should
not to be a token position. However, the association
says the term of appointment may differ, such as a
one-year term for a youth director instead of the
usual three- or four-year term for a director.
Strategies
While education and leadership are important,
co-ops must also ensure they continue to meet the
needs of all members. This was likely a lot easier in the
past when there was likely less differentiation in farm
size and in the business needs of members. The more
diverse the membership, the more likely it is that the
co-op will run into problems. As well, the larger the
membership, the greater the risk of the co-op failing.
McKee, however, suggests a number of strategies to
address this issue of member satisfaction.
First, clearly identify the goals of the members and
of the co-op. Continually communicate these goals to
the membership, staff and directors.
Second, identify where the business is losing membership and address the problem.
Third, stop trying for 100 per cent consensus. It is
impossible to be everything to everyone all the time.
Focus on the core business of the co-op.
Fourth, consider offering customized or specialized
services for a subset of the membership. While this may
appear to go against the basic equality principle of coops, McKee suggests co-ops could offer a new class of
membership, or a preferred membership for the subset
of membership who is looking for additional service over
and above the basic service available to all members.
McKee is also emphatic on another point: “A co-op
cannot simply continue with business as usual. A co-op
will not succeed if it will not change with the times.”
An example of change may be using social media
like Facebook, Twitter, or even a blog to communicate with the membership and prospective members
(especially young people) about the co-operative and
how it differs from other businesses. (The addition
of a youth director may bring valuable information
about social media to the board table.)
Dr. Murray Fulton, director of the Centre for the
Study of Co-operatives at the University of Saskatchewan, identifies some other issues that co-ops have experienced which likely have contributed to the transition of
some rural co-ops. He also identifies the succession strategies that could have been used to prevent these issues
leading to loss of membership control.
According to Fulton, some co-ops fail to allocate
sufficient funds to cover retained earnings which are payable when members leave a co-op. He says a co-op must
set aside the funds needed to cover this cost. He also suggests a co-op may even want to consider a regular, scheduled payout of retained earnings for all members instead
of waiting until members leave.
On the other hand, Fulton points out some co-operatives have not allocated enough of the profits generated by the co-op for the growth of the co-operative.
While high patronage rebates benefit current membership through lower costs and services, it can be a
April 2014
short-sighted strategy. Instead of returning all profits as
patronage dividends, Fulton wonders if perhaps some
of these funds could remain as permanent capital of the
co-op to be used for growth and expansion of services.
New-generation co-operatives
Fulton and McKee warn that new-generation coops present an even greater challenge for long-term
continuation under the co-operative business model.
While new-generation co-ops seemed the perfect
way for a group to fund a new venture to provide a
needed service in a community, this model typically
requires a very significant upfront investment by the
membership.
Even after a relatively short time, a successful
new-generation co-op (NGC) can have increased so
much in value that potential new members simply
cannot afford to buy out members seeking to leave
the co-op. As a result, new-generation co-ops are
even more likely to transition away from membership control than a traditional co-op.
New-generation co-ops are even more
vulnerable. Many get sold, although
there’s no reason they should have to
If you are a member of a new-generation co-op it
is even more critical you have a strategy in place to
transfer ownership to new members if you want the
business to remain under membership control.
This is also the opinion of USDA economist Bruce
Reynolds. In his publication, Ownership Succession
Crucial for Rural America, Reynolds writes: “The
challenge is that most beginning farmers, especially
those with farm debt, cannot afford to buy appreciated shares in a new-generation co-op.
“In recent years, many value-added enterprises
have been functioning as NGCs but have been formed
as Limited Liability Companies (LLCs),” Reynolds
continues. “In this way farmers have a larger market
for selling shares, one that includes non-farmer investors, but ownership and control of these businesses
will become increasingly unavailable to beginning
farmers, or to any farmers, for that matter.
“Thus the new-generation co-operative may not
become the co-operative for the next generation of
farmers.”
The co-operative business model is highly successful. The 2012 House of Commons Committee report
“Status of Co-operatives in Canada” points out one
in three private-sector businesses fails whereas only
one in five co-operative enterprises fails.
However, their downfall is business succession
planning. If you are a member of a co-op, and want
to see the business continue to be member controlled, succession planning is an issue your membership and directors must tackle immediately. CG
country-guide.ca 45
business
The power to help Africa
Where Canada once based its aid programs on high-capacity,
Canadian-built machinery, new industry-led plans work better
By Scott Garvey, CG Machinery Editor
Winnipeg-built
Versatile tractors
and Brantford-built
MF combines
were supplied to
Tanzania as part of
the development
of a large-scale
wheat farm
created by CIDA.
Photography: Ray Bianchi
n the February 4 edition of Country Guide,
you read about Canada’s latest $13 million in
agricultural development aid being invested in
Ukraine to create a new generation of farm cooperatives under the Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA).
While the Ukraine project represents a significant financial investment, CIDA has funded much
larger agricultural development programs in the past,
most notably one in Africa in which Canadian-built
machinery played a key role.
In a long-term project in Tanzania that ran from
1968 to 1993, CIDA invested a total of nearly $78
million to create a state-of-the-art wheat farm. It was
based on the western Canadian model of broad-acre
production using large-scale machinery, and the plan
was to hand over management of the farm within a
few years of it becoming fully operational.
In 1987, during phase two of the project, a shipment of Massey-Ferguson 852 combines and Versatile four-wheel drive tractors arrived on the CIDA
farm, which was set up and staffed by experienced
Canadian prairie farmers.
“A block of land, about 3,000 acres, actually very
close to Mount Kilimanjaro, was made available
west of Arusha, which is the second-biggest town
in Tanzania,” recalls Dave Nicolle, an engineer who
worked for Massey-Ferguson’s combine assembly
46 country-guide.ca plant when it was located in Brantford, Ont. He
was one of a team of engineers sent to the farm by
Massey-Ferguson to assemble the combines and see
they were operating properly.
“Everything else came from Canada,” Nicolle
says. “The pre-fab houses, even the furniture came
from Ikea (through Canada). There was no hydro
so they brought 110-volt generators. But the rest
of the country was 220 (volt). So it was uniquely
Canadian.”
“There were a lot of Versatile four-wheel drive
tractors from Winnipeg. Because western Canadian farmers were used to pull-type combines,
they asked for pull types, which we made. They
were 852s. At least half a dozen were sent from the
(Brantford) factory.”
“There were brutal roads getting from Arusha
out to the farm,” Nicolle remembers. “Something
that would take an hour in North America took four
hours. The only vehicles that would stand up in that
part of the world were (Toyota) Land Cruisers. I
remember they had about 34 of them that the Canadian government had bought to provide transportation on the ground.”
On the farm, CIDA had built top-quality facilities
to keep machines operating, along with an ample
supply of spare parts. “They had a beautiful workshop complex,” says Nicolle. “The spare parts in it
April 2014
business
were unbelievable. They even had spare engines for
the Versatile tractors.”
But despite the massive investment and the
proven production capacity of the farm while under
the management of CIDA staff, it ended in failure
after it was turned over to locals.
In response to a Country Guide request for information, the federal government described the result
this way: “An important lesson learned from this
project was that Tanzania’s dependence on foreign
machinery and expertise, coupled with the liberalization of the Tanzanian economy, meant that the cost
of the wheat production and the approach of tying
development assistance to the use of foreign equipment was not sustainable.”
But a dependence on foreign-built machinery
wasn’t — and still isn’t — unique to Tanzania. Other
countries face the same situation and still succeed.
And the farm’s output had been significant. “(It) produced import savings of $140 million over the lifespan of the project,” noted the government response.
“Significantly, during the drought in 1992, Tanzania
was the only Southern African state that did not
require food aid.”
Although the government also fingers dependence
on foreign expertise as a factor contributing to the
farm’s demise, it acknowledges the farm contributed
significantly to local skills, “…training more than
120 Tanzanians in all aspects of wheat production,
and 150 mechanics gained skills and experience at the
maintenance workshop.” So, clearly, enough expertise
was created within the country to continue the farm.
An impressive and well-stocked maintenance facility was built in
order to keep the Canadian-built equipment operating.
Those familiar with conditions in Africa aren’t
surprised the CIDA project failed after Canadian
managers left. They suggest the failure was inevitable
because of widespread poverty, cultural differences
and political corruption.
Those trying to mechanize the region now have
devised an approach they think takes those factors
into account.
Martin Richenhagen, chairman and CEO of
AGCO, has been one of the driving forces working
Continued on page 48
In total, about 1,700 locals were employed at the CIDA farm during the time it was operated by Canadian managers.
April 2014
country-guide.ca 47
business
Continued from page 47
to expand agriculture on that continent, and he is
well versed in the challenges.
“When an African farmer gets a tractor through
an aid program, and they get it for free, those are
very poor guys,” Richenhagen said during a 2012
interview in Jackson, Minnesota. “So they think
about it. Well, what is better? Is it better to start to
work hard or is there a better way to make money?
So the first thing is they sell the seat. They strip the
tractor down to the parts. After about a year the tractor is completely gone and you find the engine on a
power generator or a water pump or something like
that. So this brought us to the problem, how do we
do better?”
48 country-guide.ca Successful development under those conditions
requires a different tack than the CIDA program
took. The overall approach to increasing mechanization there now is very different. And global brands
including AGCO are involved in the effort.
It goes without saying that aside from the moral
obligation to help eliminate hunger, there is enormous potential for future profits if they succeed.
“We try to do two things,” says Richenhagen. “One
is we invest in, we call them, demonstration farms —
farms which are managed by Westerners where we can
train customers and dealers in mechanized farming. It’s
different than what we’re used to here. It’s like our farming used to be in the ’50s or ’60s. We do that with the
help of the seed and chemical guys as well.
“The second thing is we also use those demo farms
April 2014
business
as machine stations. We don’t sell a tractor anymore,
but we rent it to a farmer for a day. He pays for a day.
He has to bring it back, clean it, check the oil. He has
to do the little service. So we make sure the tractor
stays together. We force them into a discipline.”
But a major cultural impediment to development
revolves around the fact that women are often the
ones expected to provide labour, not men. “You
need to understand the African culture,” Richenhagen explains. “In most of Africa, work is only for
women.” However, they sometimes can’t reap the
benefits of their own efforts.
That factor wasn’t lost on delegates at the 2013
AGCO Africa Summit, Richenhagen’s annual event
held in Berlin in January that brings leaders together to
strategize on how to stimulate agricultural development.
“…the rule of law is important as well, in order
(for women) to be able to acquire land titles,” suggested Gudrun Kopp, parliamentary state secretary
to the federal minister of economic co-operation
and development in Germany, during her address
at the summit. “…they are the ones driving development forward. It is thus important that they are
able to inherit a piece of land.”
It’s something many women still can’t do.
Now into its third year, the annual Africa Summit has helped blend and co-ordinate public and
private sector initiatives. Despite that, the challenges ahead on that continent are formidable.
“This is what we’re doing, and we have a good
plan,” says Richenhagen. As CIDA’s earlier effort
showed, anything less than that just isn’t enough. CG
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country-guide.ca 49
Production
Into the corners
There’s no polite way to say it — our modern crop
varieties are very productive, well-bred wimps
By Gord Leathers
ockey legend Gordie Howe was
born on the Canadian prairies in
Floral, Sask., on the outskirts of
Saskatoon. Tough and scrappy, he
dominated along the boards and in
the corners where his legendary elbows secured his
space and made him a formidable competitor.
At one point Canadian farmers fielded entire
teams made up of those sorts of players — tough
competitors. They were ready to get out there and
mix it up with diseases, weeds and insects, as they
benefited from countless years of natural selection
and selective breeding.
But a funny thing happened after the Second
World War. Suddenly a peacetime purpose needed
to be found for chemical and explosives plants, and
under the tutelage of Norman Borlaug, the Green
Revolution appeared.
With its library of new science-based tools, it
encouraged unintended consequences, where plant
breeders selected lines with maximum yield potential and paid less attention to their competitiveness,
since these powerful new tools would clear the playing field for them. Essentially we’d begun to field
teams of Wayne Gretskys, while buying the services
of a bunch of Marty McSorley types to keep the
goons off of them.
Most farmers never notice, precisely because those
tools are so good. But one group of farmers knows
all too well what happens when those tools are taken
away. They’re organic farmers and frequently their
variety choices are a serious throwback to the days of
yore, according to Martin Entz, a plant science professor and researcher with the University of Manitoba.
That’s because there is no shortage of wheat
strains for the conventional farmer who may choose
from many excellent varieties. Any registered wheat
grown in Canada comes from a reputable breeding
program where they’re grown under very tightly controlled conditions with selected inputs in clean plots.
On the other hand, the organic farmer’s selection is
much more limited, because left unattended some of
these great varieties will be quickly roughed up and
have the puck stolen from them.
“In Manitoba we did see that there were certain
varieties of wheat that organic farmers were growing
that were a little different from conventional farmers, things like Cadillac and AC Domain,” Entz says.
“There’s a group of organic farmers on the Prairies,
50 country-guide.ca as well as in B.C. and Ontario, that like heritage
varieties like Red Fife.”
Red Fife is a strain of wheat that understands
organic conditions. It first appeared on the farm of
David Fife in Peterborough, Ont., in 1882, back
when organic farming was conventional farming.
It had a distinctive red colour and it soon became a
favourite with millers and bakers. It also had elbows
like Gordie Howe, and became a favourite of farmers for its agronomic toughness.
One organic farmer says she’s using these ancient
varieties because the newer ones just aren’t suited
to the more competitive environment of an organic
farm and the reality of having to scramble for scarcer
resources. A dose of anhydrous is an easy spoon-feed
compared to organic nitrogen, and weed competition
can make an organic field a rough neighbourhood for
a domestic annual. Organic strains really need elbows.
“Nature is not kind sometimes and if you think
you’re going to fight it you’re going to lose so you learn
what’s possible and you learn to work within the realm of
the possibility,” explains organic producer Kate Storey, of
Grandview, Man. “I look for moderate height. The dwarf
varieties are going to get covered by weeds but those great
tall varieties are not going to be productive and we’re
looking for productivity, so lots of heads, lots of tillering.”
Another trait she likes is disease resistance and
this is something you can find in a lot of the conventional varieties. But she also needs a plant that’s
thrifty and good at scavenging for residual nitrogen,
something that will give her wheat a quick start and
a leg up on weed competition. Because the organic
community is relatively small, what they need in
terms of agronomics hasn’t been a priority for the
larger breeding operations run by either the government or the private sector.
“Like every crop that’s grown in a serious way it
needs good varieties and there are good conventional
varieties out there but we were not sure whether they
were the best ones for organic,” Entz says. “The
organic farmers have not been serviced well with
varieties specific to their needs.”
Up to about 100 years ago, farmers actually bred
their own crops, and part of last year’s yield was
reserved for the next spring. Other seed stock came
from neighbours or, in some cases, from far-flung
distributors. In this way the farmer’s eye was the first
test and seeds from last year’s most productive plants
found their way back into the soil. New varieties
April 2014
production
“We’d begun to field teams of Wayne Gretskys, while buying
the services of a bunch of Marty McSorley types.”
were tested as they came and if they were
suitable they’d find their way into the
rotation and into the gene pool.
In this way Red Fife ruled for many
years, but didn’t meet the new standards
for uniformity demanded by a more
industrial approach to agriculture. In
the early 1900s Red Fife was crossed
with Hard Red Calcutta and the resulting strain, called Marquis, became the
new standard and remained on top into
the 1930s. Selecting and developing new
strains became the domain of the professional breeder and with the advent of
genetics, the job of breeding new strains
left the farm field and moved to the labs
and test plots of the doctoral class.
It’s a time-consuming and expensive
undertaking that makes sense in the largescale, one-size-fits-all arena of modern input
agriculture. Still, the organic markets are
increasing and some farmers are responding
by making the jump to organic certification.
But the organic grower suffers a dearth of
germplasm for a couple of reasons. First, it’s
still a relatively small market for large-scale
breeders. That’s compounded by the fact
that low-input farming demands a plant
that can deal with a variety of conditions
and those conditions are not stable.
In short, effective organic varieties are
best forged in the crucible of the organic
plot, with widely variable soil conditions, high biotic action and communities of weeds. It requires that they be
custom bred for a wide variety of field
conditions and the best way to do that
may be locally with specific strains tailored to specific geographies. Entz mentioned this over coffee with Agriculture
Canada wheat breeder Stephen Fox back
in 2004 and the seeds were planted.
“I spent some time in Europe and saw
how those organic research programs
were actually developing varieties that
were entirely selected under organic management,” Entz recalled. “I said, hey, this
is a good idea, let’s do this and so that’s
what we did.”
April 2014
He, Fox and Agriculture Canada oat
breeder Jennifer Mitchell Fetch set out
a program with some money from the
Organic Science Cluster and the BAUTA
Initiative and to house a diverse range of
test plots, they got help from an old and
truly valuable source. They sent out invitations to organic farmers to help with
the program.
“There are several ways farmers can
get involved and one of them is by providing research sites for agronomic and
plant breeding experiments,” Fox says.
“Having access to experimental land in
differing environments is particularly
important for us.”
Not only were farmers asked if they
would provide land for test plots, they
were also invited to tend them and select
the best plants for the next generation.
In this way farmers would help produce
strains that were ideal for the growing conditions on their own land. Fox and Mitchell Fetch did the crosses for the first three
growing seasons and then the F3 (i.e. third
generation) seeds were sent to the farms
and grown there for three seasons.
“They wanted us to plant the seed
that they sent us into plots that were one
metre wide and 30 metres long,” Storey says. “Then we’d go back in July to
look at the plot, monitor the disease and
mark down what was happening. When
the plants were ripe we’d collect 500
heads, put them in a bag and send them
in to the university.”
Gary Martens did what was called
negative selection, “which means that
I walked through my little field most
Sunday afternoons, just as a leisurely
thing to do, and I picked out anything I
didn’t like,” says the University of Manitoba staff agrologist and farmer participant. “What I didn’t like was really
short stuff, because I knew that wouldn’t
compete against weeds, and stuff that
wasn’t vigorous I figured wasn’t very
good at getting nutrients. Yellow stuff
means it was lacking nitrogen. I didn’t
want stuff that couldn’t find its nitrogen
and I didn’t want plants with only a single tiller. Later in the season I was looking for leaf diseases and if I noticed there
was disease on the leaves I just pulled it
out and discarded it. Right near harvest,
if I noticed fusarium on the head, I just
pulled that plant and threw it out and I
kept on pulling plants through the whole
season and harvested what was left.”
Martens concluded each year by thoroughly cleaning the seed and selecting
the very biggest and best of them. Then
the professional breeders would look
after crosses for years seven and eight.
All in all, the germplasm was selected by
doctoral level experts but a lot of field
level experience was brought to bear by
the farmers.
“Trying to predict what a plant
should have in order to be a good
organic variety is impossible,” Entz says.
“The best thing to do is to make crosses
and then select under organic conditions
so that the plant figures it out itself.”
What comes out is a viable crop
strain, custom bred for a specific geography with specific conditions. Ultimately
this could be just what organic growers
need for the best possible production in
an ecologically diverse environment.
“There’s a lot of factors involved
with what would work well under their
particular system or their rotation,”
Mitchell Fetch says. “Stephen has one
that’s going to come up for support for
registration this year and it actually performs really well under conventionally
managed systems so it’s done well in
both places.”
Perhaps this shows the real value of
a program like this. If what comes out
of it is a tough, ornery strain of wheat,
born of the Prairies like Saskatoon’s
favourite son, conventional farmers can
also produce well with less fertilizer and
fewer herbicides. Wheat with elbows
like that could be cost-effective in anyone’s rotation. CG
country-guide.ca 51
Production
Unsung champion
Move over red spring. Our red winter can be superior choice
By Ellen Goodman, Cigi
hen Canadian wheat is
the topic of conversation,
it’s only a matter of time
before quality milling
wheat becomes a focus.
After all it’s our international brand, and
our red spring wheat is said to be one of the
best milling wheats in the world, perfect for
bread baking.
But did you know there’s another wheat that
is often overlooked, but an equally good milling wheat, albeit for a slightly different market?
Quality characteristics of Canada Western Red
Winter (CWRW) wheat make it a perfect choice
for use in processing food products that require
a high-quality wheat with low-to-medium protein levels. While it doesn’t have the high protein of a Hard Red Spring wheat, it actually
outstrips it in some milling characteristics.
“CWRW in particular has the best milling performance amongst all Canadian wheat
classes in terms of flour yields, low ash content, and colour that is bright and stable which
means the dough discolours very slowly,” says
Ashok Sarkar, head of milling technology at
Cigi (Canadian International Grains Institute).
CWRW protein is guaranteed at a minimum of
11 per cent for the top two grades.
“Anywhere U.S. HRW with 11.5 per
cent protein is being used, CWRW can
adequately fulfill those processing requirements,” he says. “It can be used for virtually any kind of medium-hard wheat-based
food product, and with it customers also get
the Canadian quality package which brings
cleanliness, uniformity, improved yields,
lower ash and better colour.”
CWRW has been traditionally in demand
for feed markets. However, the wheat class is
well-suited for food products such as hearth
breads and flatbreads and in blends with soft
Top: Cigi techician Da An (Anne) cuts steamed
bread for a sensory evaluation test at Cigi’s
Winnipeg facility.
Bottom: CWRW wheat is proving perfect for certain
Asian food products such as these steamed buns.
52 country-guide.ca April 2014
PRODUCTION
wheat for crackers. The low ash content results in good flour
for places such as China and throughout Southeast Asia. In
some Asian countries flour bleaching occurs to obtain desired
product brightness, and the possibility of banning the practice
opens up greater potential use of CWRW.
“It’s still the best class for steamed bread because of its
whiteness,” says Esey Assefaw, head of Cigi Asian products.
“CWRW in particular has
the best milling performance
amongst all Canadian
wheat classes.”
— Ashok Sarkar,
Head of Milling Technology, Cigi
“When it’s milled at the same standard milling procedure,
same extraction rate and protein, side by side with other
types of wheat, it gives the highest whiteness which is great
for steamed bread because they want it as white as possible.”
Sarkar recalls that a number of years ago, when Cigi
conducted an evaluation of wheat mixes for various food
applications in Thailand, the mix for steamed bread used
CWRW as the core wheat.
Domestic mills will sometimes use CWRW for blending to slightly lower the protein content of flour, he says.
CWRW is also blended with soft wheat flour to add protein
strength for certain baked products. “Yeast-based dough
or fermented doughs used for crackers require strength,
so using soft wheat doesn’t always give good results. That
is why CWRW is blended 50-50 sometimes. It fits nicely
because it’s got lower protein, and is not as hard.”
The Canadian system of protein segregation which, for
Nos. 1 and 2 CWRW guarantees no less than 11 per cent
protein, has helped ensure quality and consistency for enduse processing, Sarkar says.
Over the years Cigi has carried out quality evaluation of
CWRW on behalf of customers and for technical missions
overseas. In September 2013, Sarkar and Assefaw demonstrated quality characteristics of CWRW varieties in milling and the processing of steamed bread and white salted
noodles to customers at major milling companies in Japan,
as well as South Korea, who had a limited awareness of
its potential. Samples of newer wheat varieties from Canadian grain companies were compared to those used by the
Japanese and Korean companies from competitor countries
which generated positive results for CWRW varieties.
“CWRW is a very high-quality wheat for the food applications it’s used for,” adds Rex Newkirk, Cigi vice-president
of research and innovation. “Yes, it has lower protein,
but there are lower protein markets and it gives amazing
flour yield. Sometimes when you hear or read about low-,
medium-, and high-quality wheat, what is really being discussed is protein, not actual quality.” CG
FIELD NOTES
MOSAIC CHIEF TO STAY
ON THROUGH TREATMENT
FOR CANCER
The Canadian-raised CEO of U.S. fertilizer firm
Mosaic Co. plans to stay on the job but cut back on
travel while undergoing chemotherapy for cancer.
Mosaic recently disclosed Jim Prokopanko, the company’s CEO since 2007, was diagnosed and is undergoing treatment. The company did not elaborate on what
type of cancer Prokopanko has.
“While this is a serious matter, the good news is that
I’m feeling well and my doctors have informed me that
I was diagnosed at an early stage,” Prokopanko said in
the company’s release.
“I’m planning to work a regular schedule and perform my duties as CEO, but will be limiting travel over
the coming months while I attend to this condition.”
The Minnesota-based company’s chairman, Robert
Lumpkins, said Prokopanko has developed a “talented
management team who will continue to advance the
strategic direction, laid out by Jim and our board,
during this difficult period. With Jim’s assistance and
leadership, we have ensured there is a process for management continuity throughout his treatment.”
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APRIL 2014
country-guide.ca 53
10901A-CFM-5Reasons-QRTPage-CountryGuide.indd 1
3/25/14 2:20 PM
Production
field notes
Tiny bug could be big
problem for canola
AgCanada.com
The farm newspaper the Manitoba Co-operator is reporting the emergence of a nasty new
canola pest that could have enormous ramifications
for canola production on the Prairies.
The pest in question is Swede midge — a voracious mosquito-like bug that can wreak havoc with
your canola yields.
First found in North America in 2000, it
appeared in low numbers in Manitoba in 2007
and 2013, says Julie Soroka, a Saskatoon-based
entomologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food
Canada.
“The most I’ve ever caught is five adult males,
but if we ever get the numbers that Ontario has got,
we’ll have to start growing alfalfa for hay, because
there’s probably more profit in it,” Soroka said in a
presentation on emerging canola pests at the recent
CanoLAB 2014.
So tiny that it looks like it couldn’t hurt a fly, this
cousin of the wheat midge is causing such havoc in
Ontario that many farmers there have given up on
canola due to devastating losses.
Unlike its cousin, Swede midge can go through
as many as five generations in a single growing season and overwinter in the soil anywhere in Canada
where canola is grown.
Like its cousin, the bug emerges only in wet
weather. The males only live for a day, but the
females hang around for a couple more days — long
enough to lay a few hundred eggs on plant leaves,
buds and flowers.
The minuscule sap-sipping larvae do the most
54 country-guide.ca damage, but losses depend mainly on when they
start feeding. The earlier they appear, the more damage they cause.
“If you have heavy damage before bolting, you
can actually have total destruction of your seed
potential,” said Soroka, adding that the flowers turn
into “bottles” that never open.
Swede midge is nearly impossible to control
chemically. Adults are weak fliers, but they are often
blown in from other areas. Also, because they only
live for a few days, detection and spraying effectively is very difficult.
Once in the pupa stage in the soil, there’s no
effective solution, Soroka added.
“Canola is susceptible for a long period of time.
It’s not like wheat, where once wheat has passed the
growth stage, the midges are gone,” said Soroka.
Early seeding helps the canola to get a head start
on the bug and heavier seeding rates may offer a
dilution effect.
The Swede midge in Sweden
In Sweden, farmers have learned to cope with
the bug by working together. By synchronizing their
cropping plans, and only planting canola once out
of every four years, they find that it can be outmanoeuvred, she added.
However, Sweden’s canola acreage is much lower
than here, and it often uses mouldboard plows to
bury the insect pupae in the soil, a strategy that
Soroka said is very effective.
The good news is that the bug can’t thrive under
dry conditions, but the bad news is that it can hang
around for another year. Even worse is the fact that
biological control agents or natural enemies of the
critter in Canada are non-existent. CG
April 2014
Changing Weather
is Changing Farming.
Better Get Ready.
The growing season of 2013 was one for the record
books. We had it all: too wet, too dry, too cold, too hot.
Although variability in the weather cannot be changed,
we can learn to better manage under these conditions.
Conservation of water and soil is vital to your success in
all kinds of weather.
The 6th World Congress on Conservation Agriculture in
Winnipeg, Manitoba, will present new ideas on all these
topics and more. Be there June 22-25, 2014, for innovative
solutions for challenges facing today’s agriculture.
Weatherproofing agriculture is one of three major
themes for the conference, along with Growing More
with Less and Sharing Innovation Success Stories.
June 22-25, 2014
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•
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Winnipeg Convention Centre
Winnipeg, Manitoba
•
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WCCa6.org
Register today at www.wcca6.org.
•
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Production
Open-door policy
Unless the livestock sector is content to let animal
rights activists set the agenda, it needs to become
a whole lot more forthcoming and welcoming
By Gord Leathers
hy does it appear to be so easy
for animal rights activists to get a
camera into a livestock operation,
and so hard for the popular press
to do exactly the same thing?
The most recent example was when the industry
got yet another black eye with an “inside” look at
turkey farms, courtesy of CBC’s “Marketplace.”
The program could certainly generate its own video,
but the truth is they used gory scenes from a video
stuffed with rampant examples of animal abuse from
the group Mercy for Animals. That’s the same group
that provided video to CTV’s “W5” that was allegedly taken in a chicken barn in Alberta, and the year
before that, in a hog barn in Manitoba.
Mercy for Animals is an American-based animal
rights group composed of kindly souls who are completely averse to killing in any way, shape or form,
unless it’s your market. Their operatives find work in
your barns where they take covert video for several
months. They post it on the web in order to discredit
your industry and although this may not be honest,
as far as they’re concerned the ends justify the means.
“Activist videos are not what they seem,”
explains veterinarian Mike Petrik in the blog he
writes under the name Mike the Chicken Vet. “I’m
not saying they fake them (although that has happened in some cases). What you need to realize is
that the activist takes video for four to five months,
then edits it into the worst 15 minutes possible. They
aren’t interested in showing the truth. The mandate
of animal activists is to stop the use of animals — all
animals — and if false representation helps them
stop a process they see as immoral, that is very
acceptable to them.”
And this is why you as livestock producers
need to get serious about improving access to your
barns. Hiding behind bio-security protocols is, quite
frankly, exactly that. If you can manage to have protocols in place that work for employees and inspectors, surely the same could happen for occasional
visits from members of the media. If the press had
ready access on short notice, then they would see
what a dull and routine place a barn really is and the
animal rights groups would have their teeth pulled.
This is extremely important because, absent any
credible and open response from industry, the activist-supplied video, as the only video available, is
56 country-guide.ca run unchallenged and unquestioned. Janet Riley of
the American Meat Institute told me of one exception where there was a later investigation. It was
the undercover video shot by the Humane Farming
Association (HFA) in an IBP packing plant in Washington state that triggered an investigation back in
2001. According to the HFA, the line was running
too fast and the workers couldn’t keep up. Consequently many of the cattle were alive and conscious
as they were suspended and run down the line.
This hidden video found its way onto television
stations whick showed the tightly edited snippets of
squirming cows. People who saw it were outraged.
The Washington Post did a large spread on the
story and, again, the livestock industry came out of
it with a bloody nose. The official investigation asked
for, and got, the full three and a half hours of HFA
video and it showed something quite different.
The problem was actually a faulty captive bolt
gun that intermittently failed to deliver the fatal shot.
Some of the cows started regaining consciousness but
were properly stunned within seconds in accordance
with company protocol. The edited video showed
what went wrong but not how it was quickly corrected. According to the official report issued by the
USDA among others:
“The prosecuting attorney was particularly concerned that the unedited videotape demonstrated
HFA’s intent to promote a particular agenda through
the edited tape, such that all evidence developed by
HFA was discredited. Other credibility issues include
the possibility of witness bias based on a history of
labour unrest at the plant.”
Investigators found some violations and these
were documented with penalties assessed, but none
of them had anything to do with the Humane Farming Association’s original petition. However, by the
time the report came out, the media had already had
its fun and moved on, without doing any followup.
So it stands. We, the public, saw it on television,
and therefore it must be true. As it turns out video
may not lie but judicious editing certainly warps
what’s there. I don’t know if the producers of either
“W5” or “Marketplace” saw the complete video like
the IBP investigators had. If they did, shame on them
for misrepresenting livestock farmers like that for the
sake of shock mongering. If they didn’t, then accepting video sight unseen from an animal rights group,
April 2014
production
people with a clear anti-livestock agenda, is sloppy
work with an appalling lack of due diligence. Those
of us who love the ironic have to laugh at the spectacle of CBC’s “Marketplace,” our national purveyor
of caveat emptor, making an ass of itself by flogging
such tainted goods.
On the other hand, however, when “W5” did their
egg farm profile in Alberta last fall, they called the Egg
Farmers of Canada who immediately battened down
the hatches and sent out an advisory to all members to
keep “W5” off their farms. Then they dodged any calls
until they were finally confronted. It was messy.
“What sort of message does that send to the general public?” asks Guelph, Ont. poultry expert Ian
Duncan. “It sends the message that this is going on
everywhere. If they had been wise, they would have
had a couple of model egg farms up their sleeve and
told “W5,” if you want to see how egg farming is
done then go there and have open doors. Having a
locked door policy only creates suspicion.”
So what can the industry do? One step is, as Riley
put it, to fight video with video. One example of this
is the Glass Walls Project, a web-based slaughterhouse tour hosted by Temple Grandin, the world’s
most respected animal handler. There are no punches
pulled and you actually see live animals killed and
processed into the main cuts.
But what you also see is how gently these animals are treated, and there’s a very good reason for
this. If the animal is bruised, that part of the cut
is discarded. If the animal is agitated, it produces
lactic acid and this depletes muscle glycogen. What
you have then is a “dark cutter,” an animal with
dark, discoloured meat of much lower quality and
lesser value. As Riley says, “not only is there a moral
incentive, there’s an economic incentive to handle the
animals humanely.”
Another example is the BBC program “Kill It,
Cook It and Eat It” where you watch a group of
people as they follow an animal from the pasture
to the dinner table. Again, no punches pulled, the
animals are killed and cut as you watch. Although
it may be shocking to those who have never seen it
before, the treatment is humane and a lot more typical of what happens in a real slaughter plant.
We know this but the public really needs to hear
it from you and not from Mercy For Animals or
PETA. To paraphrase one of my colleagues here in
Winnipeg, this is a game you can’t win by hiding.
It’s time for the industry to kick the doors open and
bring the media in. That way the popular press can
get a much better look at what’s really happening
on a day-to-day basis rather than through the brutal
filter of the animal rightists. CG
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country-guide.ca 57
Production
Crossing the threshold
Nobody likes to see hungry insects in their field —
but spraying in the absence of an economic
rationale is bad economics and agronomics
By Gord Leathers
armers and insects have always had a
complex relationship and it hasn’t become
any simpler with modern chemistry.
There’s no doubt that a lethal application
of an insecticide can do wonders for crop
production if it’s needed and timely. But it’s a waste
of good money if it isn’t. Every year farmers have to
make the call to spray or not depending on whether
a complex array of factors add up to what we call
the economic threshold.
“It’s a process for producers to determine whether
an application of an insecticide is economic,” explains
Agriculture and Agrifood Canada entomologist Owen
Olfert. “They want to control a certain pest if the economic injury level has been reached or exceeded.”
It’s a fact of life that no field ever farmed has produced at 100 per cent efficiency. That’s due to the huge
“You need a number that’s going to
keep them from going above that
economic injury level by the time
you get your spray on.”
— John Gavloski, MAFRI
58 country-guide.ca number of curve balls Nature throws. Insect damage
is going to lower yields but this shouldn’t always send
farmers out with their sprayer. They have to watch
for the economic injury level. They must answer the
question: Does the looming economic loss make it
worthwhile to take chemical action against a biological process? If the answer is “no” then there’s no point
wasting time and money on spraying. If the answer is
“yes” then a farmer can fill up the tank.
To make the call, farmers need to have a handle
on the potential value of this year’s crop along with
the cost per acre of buying the spray and running
their sprayers. They should also have a good idea of
what insect pests will be threatening their crops this
year and what will be required to control them.
Adding up the costs is a good starting point and
an experienced farmer with a handle on input prices
and a well-kept set of records should have no trouble doing this. The biological factors, however, are
another story. They’re completely unpredictable and
this goes to the heart of that complex relationship.
One thing about insects that we’ve come to know in
the 10,000 years we’ve been farming is how well and
how quickly their populations can expand to take
advantage of an abundant food source.
Ecologists call this strategy r-selection and it
hinges on small body size, early maturity and lightning fast reproduction. These species are highly
adaptable and thrive in unstable and unpredictable
environments. Because of their fast reproduction,
their populations boom when conditions line up,
and they crash just as dramatically afterward. Their
numbers, when graphed, show a rapid climb towards
a peak with an equally rapid fall when predators and
disease catch up.
Some plants act this way too and we easily recognize this same behaviour in all of our annual crop species. Their wild ancestors survived by using the same
r-selective strategy, grabbing the opportunity when
land was disturbed and bare soil became available.
They’d germinate, grow quickly and produce huge
numbers of seeds only to die off just as quickly, leaving those seeds on the ground to wait for their chance
to germinate and flourish. This certainly explains why
our pests are so at home among our crops. They’ve
been doing this dance together for millions of years.
The first insecticides worked very well and DDT
in particular brought about a revolution in pest conApril 2014
production
trol. Insect pests were completely decimated for a number of generations, until
the selective pressures favoured the progeny of resistant parents.
The tables turned back in the 1960s
when DDT became virtually useless in
the field, leading one old cotton farmer
to observe that he was killing more weevils by running over them with the tractor than by spraying them with DDT.
A decade later, with new understanding of population genetics and new chemistries, we started to play a more complex
game called Integrated Pest Management or IPM. Farmers would scout their
fields and, if the pest numbers were high
enough, then they’d go in and spray. Otherwise they’d just leave the fields alone
and let the natural enemies do the job. It
was during this period we began to establish economic thresholds.
“Essentially it started for environmental reasons, but from a farmer’s perspective
the economic threshold was promoted as
an economically desirable thing to do, just
to make sure that if you’re putting a pesticide out there’s an economic reason for
doing that,” Olfert says. “So there was the
biological component with economic benefits such as preserving natural enemies.”
That’s where we’re at today. A judicious farmer will look at the projected
costs of control balanced against the projected population levels of insects within
the fields. To do that we look at the different factors influencing insect behaviour.
The first is the weather.
“The weather can be a big factor and
the complex of insects present this year
can change,” explains John Gavloski,
provincial entomologist in Manitoba. “In
some regions this year we had a very
cold winter with minimal snowfall until
January. In areas where they didn’t have
a lot of snow their risk of cutworms and
Bertha armyworms is a bit lower, because
they overwinter right in the field. Other
insects, like grasshoppers or flea beetles,
overwinter in areas that tend to get a lot
of snow accumulation so they’re going to
be affected less. Again, your whole insect
complex can change because of differences in overwintering strategies.”
Once they get past the winter, the
spring weather can be just as important.
Grasshoppers love it when it’s hot and
dry. If that’s what greets them when they
hatch, then prolonged dry spells in the
spring may lead to serious grasshopper
problems. On the other hand, if it’s cool
and moist, the grasshoppers may die off
April 2014
and not be a problem at all, but these
are the conditions in which wheat midge
thrive. Watch for winds as well.
“A lot of insects don’t overwinter
here,” Gavloski says. “They blow in with
the prevailing winds or migrate in. Your
risk of having them two years in a row
really depends on when they blow in,
what numbers blow in and the fact that
they are mobile.”
Needless to say scouting is important.
Good population estimates are integral
to insect management. Scouts may look
for damage because rough estimates may
be done that way but proper counts are
more accurate and will give you a better
idea of how many are out there.
economic injury levels and economic
thresholds is because you’ve got an insect
that reproduces quickly,” Gavloski says.
“So you need a number that’s going to
keep them from going above that economic injury level by the time you get
your spray on.”
A great deal of research into the biology and ecology of our insect pests goes
into setting these thresholds and there’s
still a lot of work to do. Not only is there
a wide range of species that we know but
there’s always new invasive species coming into the fields.
In some of the latest research we’re
starting to factor in things like the population levels of natural enemies. In many cases
“It’s a process for producers to determine whether an application of an insecticide is economic.”
— Owen Olfert, AAFC
Accurate identification is also crucial.
Because different pests have different
habits, economic thresholds will vary
with species. For example, in the case of
Bertha armyworm the economic threshold is the same as the economic injury
level. There’s one generation every year,
so once they’ve hatched the population
doesn’t tend to grow beyond that.
Aphids, on the other hand, reproduce
very fast so there are several generations
per year. In that case the economic injury
level is set around 670 aphids per plant.
The economic threshold, however, is set
much lower.
“It’s around 250 per plant on average and the reason they made separate
it’s the work of parasitoid wasps, many too
small to be easily seen, and with some pests
these wasps are crucial in keeping pest numbers below economic injury levels.
“One of the advances occurring right
now is using apps as decision-making
tools and there are one or two of them
out right now,” Gavloski says. “There
is a soybean aphid app where you count
your aphids but you also estimate numbers of key natural enemies. It’s what
they call a dynamic action threshold
where it’s also incorporating information
on natural enemies. With computers and
apps the computing can be done simply
enough but if you had to do it by hand, it
would get complicated.” CG
Trait Stewardship Responsibilities Notice to Farmers
Monsanto Company is a member of Excellence Through Stewardship® (ETS). Monsanto products are commercialized in
accordance with ETS Product Launch Stewardship Guidance, and in compliance with Monsanto’s Policy for Commercialization of
Biotechnology-Derived Plant Products in Commodity Crops. This product has been approved for import into key export markets
with functioning regulatory systems. Any crop or material produced from this product can only be exported to, or used, processed
or sold in countries where all necessary regulatory approvals have been granted. It is a violation of national and international law
to move material containing biotech traits across boundaries into nations where import is not permitted. Growers should talk to
their grain handler or product purchaser to confirm their buying position for this product. Excellence Through Stewardship® is a
registered trademark of Excellence Through Stewardship.
ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. Roundup Ready® crops contain genes that confer tolerance
to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup® brand agricultural herbicides. Roundup® brand agricultural herbicides will kill
crops that are not tolerant to glyphosate. Genuity and Design®, Genuity®, Monsanto and Vine Design®, Roundup Ready® and
Roundup® are trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC, Monsanto Canada, Inc. licensee.
country-guide.ca 59
Production
Hiring today’s youth
The job of grooming tomorrow’s ag employees
starts while they’re still in school. These Ontario
programs show it can work
By Ralph Pearce, CG Production Editor
60 country-guide.ca outreach co-ordinator for the program. Already this
school year, teacher ambassadors have conducted
162 lessons, compared to 131 for all of last year.
Measure the difference
According to a detailed study conducted late last
year by Synthesis Agri-Food Network in Guelph,
the impact of the ambassador program is actually
measurable. Prior to the 2013 Canada’s Outdoor
Farm Show, students participating in the program
were asked three questions: 1. What is agriculture?
2. Name a career in agriculture, and 3. What’s one
question you have about agriculture?
Then students toured the show near Woodstock,
including stops at a seed company display, an equipment manufacturer and a robotic milking exhibit,
among others. The impact was immediate. Students
were asked the same three questions, and the second
question yielded a substantial increase in career
opportunities.
“We’re finding exactly the same thing in our
classrooms,” says Hendriksen, who finds that unless
students are from a rural background, they have
very little first-hand experience with the sector.
“Afterwards I find they’re starting to see jobs that
are part of a bigger system, but also include farming.
The examples we have are arborists, engineers, journalists — they’re starting to see that there are other
career opportunities.”
It’s a way of going beyond the online and video
resources developed by other companies and organizations which are often geared to those who are
already engaged in agriculture at some level.
Teacher ambassadors can showcase agriculture
across a variety of career options, appealing not only
to those familiar with agriculture, but urbanites too.
“One day, there were two students I was talking
to, and to one I said, ‘Have you ever considered a
career in agriculture?’” says Hendriksen. “He said,
‘No.’ And I said, ‘Well, what do you think you’d
want to do?’ And he said, ‘I want to work in the
environment.’ I had to say, ‘Well, chances are, you’ll
definitely be working in agriculture.’”
april 2014
Photography: Jane Russell
o the news is in. Agriculture is facing yet
another crisis. This time, it isn’t a trade
issue, commodity prices or politics. Instead,
it’s the pressing shortfall in human resources
for the agri-food, fuel and biotech industry.
The number of farmers is falling — just check any
recent census. But the demand for all kinds of jobs
pertaining to agriculture is growing, and not just for
those who drive a tractor, scout fields or breed the
latest varieties.
To keep viable, Canadian agriculture will need
engineers, biochemists, video producers, lawyers,
business planners — the list is seemingly endless.
The question is, where will we find them?
One group that’s looking is Ontario Agri-Food
Education (OAFE), a not-for-profit established in
1991 through the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture
and Food to help the province’s teachers do a better
job of making their students aware of agriculture.
“Ag in the classroom” has been a key OAFE
program, but in 2012, the group also launched the
Teacher Ambassador Program, a very different type
of resource aimed primarily at engaging high school
students in learning all that agriculture has to offer.
“It’s impacting students at the intersection where
they’re actually having those thoughts (about a career),”
says Colleen Smith, executive director of OAFE. “It’s
great for younger students to know about agriculture,
but our purpose with the Teacher Ambassador Program
is to have a very targeted delivery system aimed at a
wider audience than OAFE has ever targeted before.”
In the past, OAFE developed its programs and promoted them to traditional classroom teachers. Now,
they’re aiming at the next generation of educators who
are currently underemployed, by hiring them to conduct classroom sessions as teacher ambassadors.
“This is not a guest-speaker program; they are
teachers that are trained to deliver classroom lessons
about the agri-food sector, lessons they take with
them for life,” says Smith. “They have new skills in
their tool kit that differentiate them in the marketplace. And that’s the win-win of this program.”
“It’s definitely growing,” says Rachel Hendriksen,
PRODUCTION
More wins waiting
Smith believes the ambassador program still has a
long road ahead of it, in spite of its many successes. She
points to the fractured nature of agriculture itself, with
its many voices, mandates and priorities.
The ambassador program provides training and
resources to guide new teachers through many agri-food
hot topics, but on its own, this isn’t enough. The culture
within agriculture needs to change as well, and Smith
acknowledges that won’t happen overnight.
“We have to let go of our outdated notions in agriculture,” Smith says. “We need to be positive and proud.”
“Is it important for Canada to continue to produce its own food? That’s a pretty basic question,
but I don’t think anyone is thinking about that now
because we already have so much of it,” Smith adds.
She warns too, though, that it’s possible to get
lost in the buzz about the industry, such as “three
jobs for every graduate” or the job opportunities
arising from new technology. “More important to
me is how the Canadian public supports a national
food strategy that will keep the food jobs in Canada. Why are we importing so much food when
Canada is prolific in food production, and what is
the impact on our own jobs? When you look at that
reality, you wonder what the heck’s going on here.”
Continued on page 62
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country-guide.ca 61
Production
Continued from page 61
No apologies
Reaching ahead
While OAFE focuses on high schools with its Teacher Ambassador Program, the University of Guelph’s Ontario Agricultural College is working on
its own “Reach Ahead” initiative, along with a strategic plan with the Alliance of Ontario Food Processors.
“Application numbers and the enrolment in programs have grown substantially over the past couple of years,” says Dr. Rob Gordon, dean of OAC,
First-year enrolment in Guelph’s B.Sc. in agriculture is up 35 per cent
from last year. “And I just saw some statistics last week,” Gordon says. “In
the province as a whole, applications in universities are down 10 per cent,
mostly by demographics within secondary schools.”
Reach Ahead attracts Grades 11 and 12 students who are on track to
develop specialized skills in business, agriculture, horticulture, food processing and the environment.
The other OAC initiative is work with the food processors to develop a
talent management strategy. It’s a template for providing leadership and
a means both of redefining the needs of the value chain and of keeping it
moving in the right direction.
Gordon thinks such efforts must be ongoing. Every year there will be a
new graduating class of high school students looking for a better sense of
the career opportunities that exist in the sector.
“We need to make sure that we have clearly identified career opportunities for them,” says Gordon. “The most frequently-asked question we have
today through our liaison events, is ‘Tell me which job this will allow me to
do.’ That’s an important question that you have to have an answer to.”
62 country-guide.ca Among the ambassador program’s big supporters is Lorie Jocius, in charge of special projects with
Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show and the current chair
of OAFE’s board of directors.
“Unless we want to be 80 and still doing these
jobs, we need to engage the younger generations,”
Jocius says. “This program is how we’re doing it
more effectively.”
Jocius watched the impact of the farm show tour
last September, from revealing that car parts are now
made out of soybeans, to the mechanics involved in
milking robotics or new seeding technology. She also
recalls the impact of a John Deere executive saying
there is more computer source coding in the newest
combine than in a Boeing aircraft.
That changing face of technology means new
opportunities. But Jocius also maintains that the issue
has to be addressed now, not in five or 10 years.
“I think they’re starting to get it,” says Jocius,
“but somebody still needs to step up and say, ‘If you
guys still want to have a vibrant agricultural industry in this country in the next 20 to 30 years, you’d
better start doing something about the educational
concerns within the school system, and with regards
to careers.’”
The 2013 Synthesis Agri-Food Network study
compared Ontario’s previous approaches, accounted
for OMAF’s expectations and even compared
OAFE’s program to similar efforts in Michigan and
Illinois. Based on that research, Synthesis president
Rob Hannam believes the ambassador program is
unique, and he isn’t sure other organizations would
be capable of copying it.
A key feature is that the program is delivered
by certified teachers, Hannam says. On top of that,
though, is the link to the Outdoor Farm Show, and
the wide scope of the show itself, with all of the
things students can see as they’re walking around.
And it does make a difference, says Hannam,
who points to the students’ ability to name careers
in agriculture. “We moved up by 30 per cent just
by exposing people to the careers in farming at the
Outdoor Farm Show through the Teacher Ambassador Program,” he says. “That showed me that the
program was a big success.”
That success can’t come soon enough, says
Jocius. “Employment trends tend to work in waves
that are usually reactionary rather than from reflective analysis,” Jocius says. “If you’re reactionary
when it comes to an employment trend, you’re
already behind the eight ball. We already know
there’s going to be a shortage coming and, personally, I think there’s a shortage now. And unless we’re
prepared to let our kids or grandkids get their food
in cans from other countries, we need to start educating them now.” CG
april 2014
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Better ways to reach your goals
By Pierrette Desrosiers, M.Ps., work psychologist, speaker, and business coach
t happens to all of us. We set goals but, in the
end, are not able to reach them. Then how do
we increase our chances of reaching our goals?
For decades, pop psychology gurus have
encouraged people to visualize success, and
then, by magic, it will happen! “Don’t ask yourself
any questions. You just have to believe, and the cosmic universe will bring it to you.”
That’s the “secret.” However, it seems a long way
from reality, at least on the farm.
Here by contrast are some real questions that can
help you assess the quality of your goals, and your
probability of achieving them.
Ask yourself about the importance of your goal.
How important is it to you, on a scale of one to 10.
If you rate it at six or below, you may give up when
you encounter the first obstacle.
Also ask yourself about your sense of personal
effectiveness. In other words, on a scale of one to
10, what degree of confidence do you have that
you will succeed in reaching your goal, assuming
you put in all the effort needed and have all the
resources required?
Then ask if your goal is a “SMART” goal?
 Specific
Goals are often too vague. For example: “I am
going to work less.” On the other hand, specific goals
emphasize details such as, “I am going to take time
for myself. I will play sports four times a week.”
 Measurable
Sometimes goals are imprecise. For example: “I
want to cut my spending.” Measurable goals provide concrete information, such as, “I will decrease
my food costs by three per cent.” By establishing a
number, it is easier to verify whether or not the goal
has been reached.
 Achievable
Frequently, success depends in part on establishing practical, achievable goals. For example, an
unachievable goal might be, “I will grow my net
income by 50 per cent next year.” Unachievable
goals discourage us and undermine our self-esteem.
 Realistic
To be realistic, a goal must take into account
both your strengths and your weaknesses, as well as
your work environment. Be aware too that if you set
the bar too high, you will be discouraged. If too low,
it won’t trigger the adrenaline that it is required.
 Timely
Deadlines encourage action. In addition, setting
a specific schedule makes it possible to monitor
progress on the work. For example: “I want to renovate the old shed.” The question to ask here is, “By
the end of this December or in about two years?”
64 country-guide.ca Such SMART strategies are useful, but over the
years, I have realized they aren’t enough on their
own. Here are the pieces that are missing.
Make CLEAR goals.
 Control
Do you control the results of your goal? When a
client tells me, “My goal is to pass on the farm to my
child,” I ask them, “What part of this do you control?”
In this case, you can create conditions to facilitate the
succession. After that, however, you have to let it go.
 Legal
Some people reach their goal but don’t consider
its legal ramifications. This can end in disaster.
 Environmental and ethical
Goals are achieved within a system. When we
pursue a goal, it affects our life and those around us.
What are the consequences of your goals:
• On your physical and psychological health?
• On your spouse, children, employees, and associates?
• On your environment and society in its widest sense?
• On your ethics?
 Appropriate alignment
Are your goals aligned with your values, mission,
and vision?
 Registration
How do you register or track progress toward
your goal?
Finally, to succeed, you must plan your resources.
What resources will you need (money, time,
energy, skill development, contacts, equipment, etc.)?
Accomplishing goals requires various resources.
Make as realistic and specific a list as possible.
What are the obstacles you might face? How can
you confront them and what steps can you take to
overcome them? What are the self-limiting beliefs
that you hold that could prevent you from reaching your goal? For example, “I am unable to learn
information,” “I am too shy to meet people,” “They
will not accept me.” Be prepared to challenge these
beliefs in order to reach your goal.
The more you are able to respond precisely and
positively to these questions, the more likely you are
to succeed.
And remember: Where goals are concerned, there
are two possible sources of misfortune: failing to
reach them, and sometimes… succeeding. CG
Pierrette Desrosiers, M.Ps., CRHA is a work psychologist, professional speaker, coach, and author
who specializes in the agricultural industry. She
comes from a family of farmers and she and her
husband have farmed for more than 25 years (www.
pierrettedesrosiers.com). Contact her at pierrette@
pierrettedesrosiers.com.
April 2014
w e at h e r
NEAR NORMAL
COOLER THAN NORMAL
NEAR-NORMAL
MILDER TEMPERATURES
AND
AND
DRIER PRECIPITATION
THAN
NORMAL
m
War ered
t
t
Scaowers
h
s
Change
a
Showerble
T/storm s
s
BRITISH COLUMBIA
May 4-10: Highs in the teens, some 20s
inland but frost and snow at higher levels.
A few heavier showers. Blustery at times
this week.
May 11-17: Sunny aside from shower
activity, blustery on two or three days.
Near-normal temperatures with flurries
and frost pockets higher elevations.
May 18-24: Mostly sunny but with heavier
showers on two or three days. Seasonal to
warmer but with frost patches and flurries
at higher levels.
May 25-31: Pleasant with a few showers
in the west and thundershowers in the
east and the north. Highs in the teens on
the coast and in the north, 20s inland.
June 1-7: Warm and sunny on many days.
Scattered shower activity with a chance of
heavy thundershowers in the east and the
north.
June 8-14: Sunny with highs often in
the 20s, possibly 30 interior. Scattered
heavier showers, isolated thundershowers
on a couple of days.
MILDER THAN NORMAL
Mild y
er
Showlls
spe
C
Sh old
ow
ery
COLDER THAN USUAL
NORMAL PRECIPITATION
20s. Passing showers or thunderstorms on
two or three occasions, chance heavy in
places.
June 8-14: Warm and sunny most days
but look for heavy showers or thunderstorms on a couple of days with a risk of
hail, strong winds.
S
E
TUR
A
R
E
MP ON
L TE ITATI
A
P
M
OR
ECI
R-N ND PR
A
E
N
A
e
bl
a
e ry
ng we
a
o
Ch Sh
this week apart from scattered showers or
thunderstorms.
May 25-31: Blustery cool days alternate
with sunny and warmer days. Sunny but
showers or heavier thunderstorms on a
couple of occasions.
June 1-7: Temperatures fluctuate under
sunny skies. A couple of warmer days trigger thunderstorms, some heavy in places.
June 8-14: Sunny and warm on many
days but with scattered showers or thundershowers. Risk of heavy thunderstorms
in a few localities.
May 4 to June 14, 2014
ALBERTA
May 4-10: Highs often in the teens with
frosty nights. Sunshine alternates with
heavier showers or rain/snow. Windy at
times.
May 11-17: Seasonal to cool. Patchy frost.
Sunshine interchanges with heavier showers or thundershowers. Chance of snow
central and north.
May 18-24: Sunny but shower or heavy
thundershower activity occurs on two to
three occasions. Risk of frost and snow in
some localities.
May 25-31: Warmer and mostly sunny
apart from showers or heavy thunderstorms on a couple of days this week.
Blustery.
June 1-7: Pleasant with highs often in the
April 2014
SASKATCHEWAN
May 4-10: Seasonal to cool with occasional frost. Sunny and often windy with
scattered showers, chance of snow.
May 11-17: Variable temperatures with
frost pockets. Windy. Sunshine alternates with rain and showers. Risk of snow
mainly in the east and the north.
May 18-24: Sunshine dominates but
showers or heavier thunderstorms on a
couple of days. Slight chance of frost and
flurries in some areas.
May 25-31: Blustery and sunny most days
but passing showers or heavy thunderstorms on two or three occasions. Seasonal to occasionally cool.
June 1-7: Seasonal temperatures and
mostly sunny but a couple of warmer,
humid days set off thunderstorms, some
possibly heavy.
June 8-14: Sunny and warm but with
showers or thundershowers on two or three
days this week. Risk of heavy thunderstorms in many localities.
MANITOBA
May 4-10: Seasonal to cool. Windy at
times. Sunny apart from rain on two or
three occasions. Frosty nights. Chance of
snow in a few areas.
May 11-17: Sunny but shower activity on
two to three days. Cool with lows near zero
on a couple nights. Blustery. Chance of
snow in the north.
May 18-24: Cool overall with a risk of frost
in a few areas. Otherwise mainly sunny
May 4 to June 14, 2014
NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
The transition to a warmer season will be
marked by variable, changeable weather across
the country. The most noticeable warming
is anticipated in British Columbia where a
westerly circulation is forecast to push warm
and relatively dry conditions into the West. In
contrast, a cold northerly circulation in Central Canada is apt to prolong cool temperatures over the eastern Prairies and Ontario.
In these areas, frost and even some snow is
expected to persist well into May. However,
a warmer, wetter trend is expected in June.
Elsewhere across the western Prairies as well
as Quebec and the Atlantic provinces, look for
variable weather with temperatures and precipitation both averaging close to normal values.
Prepared by meteorologist Larry Romaniuk
of Weatherite Services. Forecasts should
be 80 per cent accurate for your area;
expect variations by a day or two due to
changeable speed of weather systems.
country-guide.ca 65
life
Gossip
not as
innocent as
you think
By Helen Lammers-Helps
he next time you’re standing in the
farm kitchen and you’re tempted to
pass on the latest, juiciest bit of gossip, maybe you should think twice.
We all know that gossip can wreck
reputations, create hurt feelings and lead to divisive
conflict.
But what we don’t always pause to consider
is that gossip can be especially destructive on the
farm and in farm communities.
Of course, not all gossip is bad. In fact, anthropologists say that gossip helps us to live in groups.
It’s a way to know who is a friend and who should
be avoided, says Eric Anderson, a researcher with
Northeastern University in Boston.
At its best, adds Elaine Froese, a farm family
coach from Boissevain, Man., gossip is a way for
people to stay connected and to find out what’s
happening to one another. “When something goes
wrong,” Froese says, “this informal information
broadcasting lets people know what has happened
so that others can help.”
Plus, gossip also communicates social norms,
says Nicholas DiFonzo, a researcher at the Rochester Institute of Technology and author of The
W atercooler E ffect . He points to all the talk
66 country-guide.ca surrounding the Tiger Woods sex scandal as an
example.
Sometimes we may share information out of a
sense of social responsibility. For example, if someone’s child is hanging around with someone who
has a bad reputation, you may warn the parents,
says DiFonzo.
Unfortunately, however, 70 per cent of gossip is
shame or negative gossip, says DiFonzo. Gossipers
solidify their own place in the hierarchy by knocking someone else down, he explains. Or they may
gossip to get back at someone by harming their
reputation.
The problem is that when we hear negative
things about people, it changes how we feel about
them without our even being aware of it, says
Anderson. Even when we learn it’s not true, it
doesn’t undo the damage that’s been done, he continues.
Mary Abbajay, president of Careerstone Group,
an organizational development firm in Washington,
D.C. agrees, and says it’s human nature to pay more
attention to information that supports our perception of someone and to disregard information that
doesn’t. She points out that psychologists even have
a name for this tendency: “confirmation bias.”
April 2014
life
Not only is negative gossip bad for individual
reputations, it also creates a toxic environment
where there are “in” groups and “out” groups,
says Abbajay. “This is bad for morale and it hurts
productivity,” she says.
Family businesses are ripe for problems with
gossip since the lines between business and family
are blurred. “I’ve seen family businesses rocked by
gossip to the point where both the family and the
business failed,” Abbajay says.
We do have the power to stop the damaging
effects of gossip. Froese advises farm families to
work to reduce destructive talk by not engaging in
it and by naming it as inappropriate when people
cross lines. “Remember that not all — and some
would argue little — of what you hear from the
rumour mill is true,” she emphasizes.
Also remember that if someone is gossiping to
you about someone else, then chances are they gossip about you to others when you aren’t around,
adds DiFonzo.
People will stop gossiping if no one is listening,
says Abbajay. Some people think, “I’m only listening, I’m not repeating it,” but that in itself encourages the gossip, she explains. “Active listening
actually supports and promotes gossiping.”
Don’t agree with the gossiper, she continues. “Turn it around by saying something positive,” says Abbajay. It isn’t nearly as much fun to
spread negative news if someone counters it with
a complimentary statement about the person, she
explains.
Tell the gossiper you don’t have time for gossip,
or avoid the gossiper, Abbajay recommends.
Gossip is as old as mankind and it’s unrealistic
to think we could free the workplace of gossip,
says Abbajay. Even so, managers can take steps to
curb negative gossip in the workplace.
Lew Bayer, Winnipeg corporate trainer and
author of The Power of Civility encourages companies to incorporate anti-gossip protocols into the
Code of Conduct. Spell out what kind of language
is off limits, she says. For example, it’s not OK to
discuss someone’s health, weight gain or pregnancy,
she says.
“It’s the old saying; If you don’t have anything
good to say, don’t say anything at all,” says Bayer.
“It’s simple but it makes a difference.”
Managers should make it clear to employees
that negative gossip hurts morale and productivity
and that it will not be tolerated, agrees Abbajay.
They also need to lead by example by not gossiping
themselves.
By communicating regularly with employees,
April 2014
especially during times of change, you can minimize speculation, says DiFonzo. “If people don’t
know what’s going on they’ll make stuff up,”
agrees Abbajay.
While social banter and idle chit-chat isn’t
harmful and can even improve cohesion, gossip
with negative emotional undertones should be
avoided, says Abbajay.
So before you repeat anything you hear, ask
yourself: If this was about you, would you want
this information passed on?
Consider the impact of what’s being said. Does
it cast negative aspersions? Does it create rifts?
Does it perpetuate conflict or negativity? Is it hurtful or damaging? Is it something I would say in
front of the person?
Consider your intentions and be honest, say
Even if we later learn the gossip
isn’t true, the damage is real,
changing how we view people
without our being aware of it
Froese and Abbajay. Are you passing on information to be helpful? Or are you sticking your nose
in somewhere it doesn’t belong? If your intentions
aren’t good, don’t repeat the information.
If you have a problem with someone, rather
than talking about it to someone else, go directly
to the person you are having the issue with, advises
Abbajay. When you say, “I can’t believe so and
so did this,” it gets passed along and expands the
conflict. It’s like a game of telephone, she says, and
everyone adds something to it.
The same principles apply in communities, says
Abbajay. If you want a positive, supportive community, then don’t pass on negative gossip, she
says. “Everyone needs to take responsibility.”
What should you do if you are the one being
gossiped about? You can confront the source, make
a public statement or just ignore it, says Abbajay.
“Gossip usually has a short lifespan, so sometimes
the best thing to do is just to let it run its (hopefully) short course. Creating a stink sometimes
causes more drama than just letting it go.”
And if you’re the person who wrongfully gossiped about someone? Apologize. Then make a
point of not doing it again, says Abbajay. “We all
do it from time to time.” CG
country-guide.ca 67
h e a lt h
Bug repellents
By Marie Berry
othing spoils a picnic, barbecue, or
even weeding in the garden more
than bug bites. And, if you work
outdoors as farm folk do, insects
are sure to find you. Regardless of
your occupation, however, you will probably have
experienced insect bites, some of which were no
more than bothersome, but others more potentially
dangerous.
Biting insects such as mosquitoes, ticks, some
flies, bedbugs, and fleas bite in order to feed on
blood. A substance in their “saliva” prevents blood
coagulation and makes their feeding possible. It
is this substance that causes the local allergic skin
reaction that you see as a bug bite.
Different people react differently depending
upon their immune system’s allergic response, and
if you have not experienced bug bites, you may
have a more serious allergic reaction, for example
a young child or a visitor from an area where bug
bites are not the norm.
These biting insects can also be vectors or transmitters of disease. The mosquito species, Culex tarsalis, carries West Nile virus from infected birds to
people. The deer tick transmits lyme disease from a
variety of mammals to humans.
Regardless of whether or not insect bites might
be the cause of disease, however, they are never
pleasant.
Insects that sting include bees, wasps, hornets
and fire ants. They sting as a defence mechanism
and actually inject you with a venom through their
stingers. The venom is the reason for the allergic
reaction, which can range from mild swelling and
redness to anaphylaxis.
If you, a family member, or a friend is allergic
to insect stings, it is important to have on hand at
all times a pre-filled epinephrine injector or “pen.”
With each repeated exposure to insect stings, the
allergic reaction can become more marked, with
swelling of airways and an inability to breathe.
Epinephrine is able to counteract the allergic
symptoms. However, you do need to seek immediate attention.
Ideally, you want to avoid bug bites and stings.
Avoiding insects is a good first step. Stay indoors
when insects are most active, especially at dusk.
Avoid perfume and bright colours which can
attract insects. When you are outdoors, wear long
pants, long sleeves, and even tuck your pants into
your socks in order to put a barrier between you
and insects. Keep garbage, sweet beverages, and
even food covered to avoid attracting insects.
The most effective bug repellents contain 25
to 30 per cent diethyl-meta-toluamide or DEET.
However, these are mainly effective against biting
insects, not stinging ones.
It is thought DEET works by confusing insects
so that they are no longer able to find you; picture
a radar-jamming cloud of bug repellent surrounding your body. Proper application is important.
You want to reapply your bug repellent after physical activity, sweating, or swimming. When the
weather is windy, your bug repellent may blow
away faster, and with warmer temperatures your
body heat and perspiration can mean a quicker dissipation.
The downside of DEET is that, when absorbed
into the body in large amounts, it can affect the
nervous system causing dizziness and disorientation. Appropriate application is necessary. It should
never be applied to damaged, broken, or cut skin,
and when using a DEET-containing bug repellent on
children, it shouldn’t be applied to hands because
children often put their hands in their mouth.
You can apply the bug repellent to clothing, but
check the fabric first as DEET can damage some
material. Also remember options like mosquito netting and protective clothing.
Some products combine both bug repellents and
sunscreens, both of which are important. But your
better choice is to use two separate products. You
want to apply your sunscreen first, about 20 to 30
minutes before going outdoors, so that it has time
to penetrate into your skin to give you the best
possible protection.
Conversely, you want to apply your insect repellent just before going outdoors so that you have the
largest “cloud” of protection around you. Smart
use can mean more enjoyment outdoors for you
and your family.
Marie Berry is a lawyer/pharmacist interested in
health and education.
Digestion is not something anyone thinks about until they experience heartburn, gas, indigestion, diarrhea,
or other symptoms of digestive problems. Non-prescription remedies and prescription medications for
gastrointestinal symptoms are numerous and varied, but with so much choice you may have difficulty
choosing. Next issue, we’re going to look at digestion and some of the more common products.
68 country-guide.ca April 2014
NOW AVAILABLE
“How often does magnetic north circle
true north?” My commercial pilot students are learning the principles of magnetism. The Earth is a very big magnet. The
compass in an airplane seeks magnetic
north, making navigation possible.
Magnetic north and true north are
not in the same place. The angle between
true north and magnetic north is called variation. Variation
differs everywhere on the globe. Pilots need to know the angle
for their area when calculating a heading to fly.
Magnetic north constantly moves. How long does it take
magnetic north to circle the North Pole? Some students answer
“24 hours,” others venture “a week.” They are surprised to
learn that it takes approximately 960 years.
I ask if anyone remembers their grade school teacher bringing a box of iron filings and a magnet to class. The iron filings
form a symmetric pattern from the North Pole of the magnet
to the south end. The magnetic field of the Earth is similar,
another demonstration of an orderly universe.
Ancient mariners pointed their sextant at the sun, moon
and stars to calculate their position. Crude compasses indicated
direction. The two techniques told them where they were and
which way they were heading.
People in Saskatoon are waiting by the South Saskatchewan
River for the first pelicans to arrive. The large white birds take up
summer residence on an island in Redberry Lake, 70 kilometres
northwest of the city. Each morning a few birds fly to the city.
They have a favourite fishing spot below a weir in the river. When
they catch their daily requirement, they fly home. They appear
to take fish back to the island to feed other birds. In the autumn
they fly long distances south to their wintering area. How do they
know to come to the same place, generation after generation?
How do they find their way? Do they have inbuilt compasses and
sextants? Are they able to sense the Earth’s magnetic field?
Order and pattern in the universe help me to believe in
God. Is the growth of a grain of wheat into a plant divinely
ordained, or chance coincidence? Who possesses the power
that holds stars in their places, or makes a rosebush grow?
What is the place of religion in a world of science? At one
time scientific truth was deemed in conflict with religious
faith. Those days have passed. Science and religion are parallel approaches to life. They do not contradict each other; they
complement each other. Scientists ask how the world was created. They study the shape and substance of the world and
everything in it. Religion is concerned with why the world was
created, with the meaning and purpose of life.
Scientists do not set out to tell us the meaning of life. Science can tell us the facts of “how” we got here, but science
does not claim to tell us “why” we are here. Our faith can help
us answer religious questions such as, “What is the purpose of
our existence?” and, “What is the value of life?”
I am making parish visits on a frosty afternoon. I ring
the doorbell and wait for a response. When a lady opens the
door, her face falls. “Oh dear,” she blurts out, “I was hoping it
would be the plumber.” With an inch of water on the kitchen
floor she needs science more than religion. I help her clean up,
a religious act while she waits for a scientific fix.
Suggested Scripture: Genesis 1:20-23, Psalm 11:4
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Rod Andrews is a retired Anglican bishop. He lives in Saskatoon.
©2013 Farm Business Communications
April 2014
country-guide.ca 69
ACRES
Leeann Minogue is the editor of GRAINEWS, a playwright,
and part of a family grain farm in southeastern Saskatchewan
Sleepless in Saskatchewan
Doesn’t Dad realize his romance is putting the farm at risk?
ale Hanson was surprised at how
relieved he was when his father, Ed,
drove into the yard, towing his 32-foot
trailer behind Dale’s one-ton truck.
“I was starting to think he’d never
come home,” Dale said to his son Jeff. “Wasn’t sure
how we were going to get the crop in without him.”
The Hansons hadn’t expected Ed to change
his routine, but one day last fall he’d come home
from the city with a new RV. Ed headed south
after harvest, and spent all winter in a trailer park
in Yuma, Arizona, so busy with social events from
fish frying to jewelry making that he barely had
time to phone home.
In mid-March, when their neighbour went south
on a golfing holiday, the Hansons found out what
was keeping Ed so busy. Bill Henderson snapped
a photo of Ed eating burgers with a woman at the
Lutes Casino, sitting close enough to touch. She was
reaching out with her napkin to dab ketchup off
Ed’s chin. Bill had texted the photo to Jeff. Jeff had
been a little shocked, but not too shocked to share it
with the rest of the family.
Ed was home for a few hours before anyone
70 country-guide.ca
brought this up. But while Ed, Dale and Jeff were
cleaning the last of the mud off Ed’s trailer before
they parked it in the shed for the summer, Dale got
up the nerve to ask.
“Meet anyone nice this winter?”
“Sure,” Ed answered.
Dale kept on. “Anyone special?”
“Why are you looking at me like that? Is there
something on my jacket?” Ed said. Then he turned
on the power washer — a machine loud enough to
put off any further discussion.
When they went in for coffee, Jeff picked up the
ball. “We saw a picture, Grandpa. You might as
well tell us about her.” Jeff pulled out his phone and
showed Ed the incriminating evidence.
Ed turned red. “What the heck? Am I on ‘America’s
Most Wanted?’ Is the CIA following me? A guy can’t get
any privacy. Did you people have my trailer bugged?”
Donna made peace. “We didn’t spy on you
Ed. Bill Henderson texted that picture to Jeff. He
shouldn’t have. But we were all glad to see you having a nice time.”
“Fine,” Ed said. “If you all have to know, I
guess I have to tell you. Her name is Helen. She’s
APRIL 2014
acres
widowed. Seventy-two. Lives in Medicine Hat. She’s
got two sons. Both in Calgary. They’re engineers or
something. And tomorrow I have to drive out there
and meet them and all their kids.”
This was more than the rest of the Hansons had
expected; they were stunned into silence.
“You don’t even like other people’s kids,” Jeff’s
wife Elaine said. “Some days you barely tolerate ours.”
“Not much I can do about it.”
“You’re going to Alberta? Now?” Dale asked. “I
thought we could finally get you to work.”
“I’m just going out for a few days,” Ed answered.
“Then… Well… Helen’s coming back here with me.
She wants to get a look at the farm.
Dale couldn’t believe it. “May? The middle of
seeding? I thought you’d be working. Not operating
a tour guide service.”
“Don’t worry. My social life won’t get in your
way. She’s staying awhile. We… uh… thought we
might save some money on lot rental and just take
one trailer south next year. Driving those monsters
all the way to Yuma is a nightmare. No point taking
two.”
Dale put down his coffee cup and got up from
the table. “I have to go to the bathroom.”
Dale couldn’t sleep that night. After an hour and
a half of pretending to ignore his sighing and thrashing around, Donna got him to talk.
“What if this woman sticks around?”
“That would be nice for your dad,” Donna said.
“Nice? For my dad to shack up? With a woman
named Helen?”
“Maybe you’ll get a half-sister. We could babysit,” Donna said. This didn’t get even a smile out
of Dale, so she tried a different tone. “Is this about
your mother? It’s been 17 years, Dale. It’s good for
your dad to move on.”
“I know,” Dale said. “It’s not that.”
Donna waited awhile before he spoke again.
“Three sections of the land we farm are still in
his name.”
“Oh Dale,” Donna said. “We’ve seen the will.
Your sister’s agreed to take an insurance payment.
The land is ours.”
“Helen has sons. Two. They’ll want something.”
Donna shook her head. “That’s what this is
about? You think your father’s girlfriend might
try to take part of the farm? We worried about
the same thing when Jeff was engaged. And that’s
worked out fine.”
“So far!” Dale said. “I’m threatened by my
father and my son! I’m getting it from both sides.
What if Dad gets dementia, and turns over everything to her?
Donna rolled her eyes. “Your dad’s happy. Jeff
and Elaine are happy. Everything is just fine.”
“For now, Donna. For now. But we’re hanging
by a thread here.”
april 2014
Donna rolled over and went back to sleep.
But Dale stayed awake. He tried to take his mind
off his father by worrying about grain transportation. Wondering how much canola they should
contract. Was it really a good idea to seed so many
acres to soybeans? And how would they seed, if Ed
was gallivanting all over, meeting grandchildren that
belonged to some woman named Helen?
Dale didn’t see the
brighter side of things in
the morning. “Geez, Dale!
Be careful!” Ed called
Dale did not see the brighter side of things in the
morning. He came dangerously close to getting an
arm stuck in the auger while he unloaded fertilizer
into a bin. Then he turned around to see his father
standing behind him.
“Geez, Dale! Be careful!” Ed called.
“What are you doing here? Thought you were
off to Calgary this morning.”
Ed handed over a brown paper bag. “Thought
I’d drop this off first.”
Dale opened the bag to find a bottle of hickory
smoked barbecue sauce.
“Got it at a restaurant near Yuma. The place
had real good food,” Ed said. “Helen bought some
for her daughters-in-law. She said I should get you
some.”
“You drove all the way out here to drop off a
bottle of barbecue sauce? Calgary’s the other way,
you know.”
Ed shrugged. “I’m not in a huge rush. Helen’s
kids aren’t too excited to meet me. They’re worried
I’m after her money.”
Dale raised his eyebrows. Ed kept talking.
“Hope you won’t lose any sleep in that department. I already told Helen you’re running a business
— we can’t go making any changes at this stage.”
“I’ll bet that went over like a lead balloon,”
Dale said.
Ed shook his head. “Helen understands. Her husband ran a carpet store in Medicine Hat for years.
We’ve both got our estates in order.”
Ed turned toward his car. “Well, guess I’d better get going if I’m going to make Calgary tonight.
Enjoy that barbecue sauce.”
Ed had his car running already when Dale walked
up and knocked on the window. Ed lowered the glass
so Dale could talk.
“Have a nice time, Dad. Tell Helen we’re looking
forward to meeting her.” CG
country-guide.ca 71
Using legendary Quadtrac® technology, the Case IH Steiger® Rowtrac™ series tractors are agronomically
designed to deliver maximum yield. Featuring four, independent oscillating tracks on an articulated frame,
these tractors increase flotation while reducing compaction and ground pressure. The result is an optimized
seedbed for ideal growing conditions and the ability to cover more ground in row crop applications.
Learn more about the power and productivity of Steiger Rowtrac
tractors by visiting your dealer, or go to caseih.com/rowtrac.
BE READY.
©2014 CNH Industrial America LLC. All rights reserved. Case IH is a trademark registered in the United States
and many other countries, owned by or licensed to CNH Industrial N.V., its subsidiaries or affiliates. www.caseih.com